Mega Man X: Maverick Hunter X3
by mewmaster93
Summary: The saga of the Maverick Wars continues on with a retelling of X's third adventure, which finds him AND the revived Zero having to face off against the might of Dr. Doppler and his army. Plenty of new and old faces shall make their appearance here, but just what secrets does Dr. Doppler hold within his town? X and Zero are in for a more difficult fight this time around...
1. Chapter 1

_The Maverick Wars continue to rage on…Even with Sigma's second demise, Mavericks are still popping up all across the world. Their attacks have not been lessened in any way, and in fact they have become even more chaotic without a leader to guide them all. But even still, the Maverick Hunters do their best to repel the threat the Mavericks bring to the world. Humans are trying to adapt to their ever-changing world, but there have been an alarmingly high number of reports telling of humans simply destroying innocent Reploids out of fear of them going Maverick._

 _However, not many months after the X-Hunter incident, a new hope arose in the form of Doppler Town. This town was built single-handedly by the famous Reploid Dr. Doppler, and he approached the human government stating that he had found a way to stop Reploids from going Maverick, and that he would offer his town as a sanctuary for any Reploid willing to go there. There were some objections from the Maverick Hunters based on suspicions from X and Zero regarding Doppler's true motives, but the government said that there was no evidence of any wrong-doings even after an investigation._

 _As such, Doppler Town was given government sanction and diplomatic immunity to be it's own state, and it would stay as such so long as Doppler can continue to do what his town is built for. Begrudgingly, the Maverick Hunters had to accept this as fact, and could only observe as Doppler brought hundreds of Reploids to his town, including a couple of former Maverick Hunters. For the time being, it seemed as though Dr. Doppler's work was a success, and more months passed as Maverick outbreaks became less and less frequent._

 _But one day, as X and Zero were out dealing with suspicions that Doppler was seen acting in an illegal part of the world, a large group of Mavericks launched a raid directly on the Maverick Hunter HQ itself. With the Maverick Hunter forces spread thin and their two best warriors out on an assignment, the Hunters were quickly overwhelmed by the Maverick forces before they could get a signal out to X and Zero in order to call them back. Riding a copter due to the teleporters being put out of commission, X and Zero hurried back to the HQ to repel this sudden attack…_

 **Mega Man X: Maverick Hunter X3**

 **Chapter 1: Day of Dr. Doppler**

It was late at night in the city, and the sirens and warning signal lights were overwhelming the bright and atmospheric lights in the city. The highways were filled with stopped traffic due to the Maverick Hunters setting up a barricade so the humans don't get too close to the chaos going on at the HQ. The towering HQ was enflamed on all sides, with a lot of the windows broken through and some metal beams bent out of place. Save for some large fly-like Mechaniloids flying towards the HQ, the only other aerial vehicle in the general vicinity of the city was the advanced military copter heading straight for the HQ.

Inside of this copter were two familiar figures, the Maverick Hunters X and Zero. X was now back to his regular appearance, having adapted the features of the last armor he'd worn into his body almost perfectly, and he was in the middle of looking outside the copter door and grimacing at the destruction the Mavericks were wreaking onto the HQ he called his home. Zero, on the other hand, was leaning against a wall on the other side of the copter and trying to think about the situation with his arms folded and his eyelids closed up until the point where X stated "This has to be Doppler's doing…"

Zero then opened his eyelids as X pulled himself back into the copter, remarking in his calm tone of voice "I wouldn't doubt it X. The lead we got taking us away from the headquarters is the biggest hint suggesting his hand in this attack…But you know how the situation is X, we can't act on our assumptions against Doppler unless we find proof. For all we know, someone else could be coordinating this attack." X punched the right side of the door and turned sideways after that in frustration.

"I just wish we could catch him in an act, Zero. Sigma's last words…" X is interrupted by Zero pointing out "Are words and nothing else without proof. I know it's bothering you X, but we have to keep calm. Acting irrationally is only going to get us in trouble with the government."

Zero pulled away from the wall and walked over to X, laying a hand on his shoulder and giving him a smile before asking in a more pumped-up tone "Are you ready to take these Mavericks out?" X nodded his head and said while lifting his arm cannon up and grasping the barrel of it "Ready when you are."

"Now all we have to do is land on the base." Zero remarked, and as he turned his head ready to ask the pilot how the situation was from his side before all of a sudden the copter was shot through by a series of small laser bullets. Zero swerves to the left to avoid some of the bullets as they pierce through the ship, then reaches to his back and pulls out the handle of his Z-Saber, activating the laser blade and swirling it around with one hand to deflect the laser fire before it hit him or X. The copter rocked for a moment, forcing X to grab onto a handlebar near the door before he was sent flying out while Zero magnetized his feet to the ground.

Holding his defense up, Zero moved a little to the left and looked between the blur of his spinning blade and saw that the pilot was leaning sideways with a hole blown in his head. With the pilot dead, Zero quickly exclaimed "We're going to need to find another ride to the HQ, now!" As the copter began to nosedive from the sky, X grit his teeth and leaned his head out of the door, watching as one of the fly Mechaniloids were about to make their way past the copter. "I have an idea Zero." X said with confidence in his voice.

Zero glanced out the door and saw the Mechaniloid, and with a grin on his face he didn't hesitate to say "Then what are we waiting for? Lets hitch a ride, X!" Zero then stopped spinning his sword and leaped right out of the door, with X following close behind right as the ground became too unstable for him to stand on. Both Hunters end up right on top of the Mechaniloid as it flies by, with them activating their magnetic boots right as they land so they can't be thrown off immediately.

The copter conveniently crashed down on top of a Maverick ground unit, taking them out and alerting the Hunters fighting down below of Zero and X's return, and after they look up and see them they find their motivation to fight igniting once more and turn themselves back to the battle they have in front of them. Up above, Zero runs to the front of the Mechaniloid and kneels down, stabbing his Z-Saber into it's head to strike a particular part of it's memory core and take control of it's flight, using his sword as a guidance stick.

"X, watch my back. I'll guide us to the top of the HQ!" Zero exclaimed loud enough so his voice would reach X regardless of wind resistance, but even if he couldn't reach X's ears the fellow Hunter was already hard at work repelling the Mavericks both large and small with either his smaller buster shots or his deadly charged ones, which were spherical and surrounded by a couple streams of energy, a carry-over from the buster upgrade of his Second Armor.

Zero meanwhile swerved his Z-Saber around to pull the Mechaniloid up and fly it up the side of the building, dodging fire from both friend and foe whenever X couldn't cover for him, and with how fast they were going they could just barely see the struggles their fellow Hunters were dealing with on the many floors of the HQ. Even so, Zero remarked "I hope everyone's holding out. We were an hour away from the HQ when we got the emergency call from Alia."

"I'm making my way straight to the command center to check up on them once we land." X remarked with concern in his voice for his comrades up there, and Zero stated "I'll try and do my best, but the turret fire is getting pretty heavy up here, and…X, heads up!" Zero stopped talking when he saw another Mechaniloid being blown out of the sky by some turret fire, which caused it to slam against the side of the building and explode, knocking tons of debris loose from the structure and making it all fall towards the two Hunters along with the parts of a few Hunters and Mavericks.

As the Hunters screamed from falling down, X tried to extend a hand out to catch one and missed, his eyes widening in shock as the Hunter falls to his inevitable death upon striking the ground. But with the debris being a more imminent concern, X had to look away from the falling Hunters and leap off of the Mechaniloid along with Zero, with the flaming debris taking out their ride right as they land on a large metal beam sticking out from the side of his building. X didn't waste any time in looking towards the opening in the wall and exclaiming "This ends now Zero. We're going to save as many Hunters as we can!"

Zero, who was currently standing behind X, swung his sword out to the right and stated "I'll sweep the middle floors for Mavericks, you get to the command center and make sure everyone's still alive." X cocked his arm cannon and then nodded his head, and the two of them ran across the beam before leaping off of it and flying towards the building, where two rotund purple Mavericks with a steel cannon on their backs were holding off some hunters with explosive rounds. With a charged shot from X and a quick downward, one-handed slash from Zero, the two take out the Mavericks and land cleanly on the ground.

Zero then dashes forward and uses swift but precise sword slashes to take out some more Mavericks while X runs to the left and goes through the hallways of the HQ to make his way to the command center. Keeping his buster charged at all times, X fires upon any Mavericks he comes across and obliterates them quickly, making sure to not even nick one of his fellow Hunters in the process, though he could not avoid causing some damage to the building as he did so due to the piercing properties of his charged buster.

As X ran through the hallways, he glanced to the left and right occasionally and saw some fallen bodies of his comrades, with medic Reploids doing their hardest to try and patch the Hunters up while they still could, even putting their own lives at risk just to do their job. The explosions and gunfire on the battlefield showed no signs of stopping, and X hated hearing the painful cries of his fellow Hunters. With an angered look on his face, X did not care if it was Doppler's doing or someone else…He was going to take them down with all he had.

After a few minutes of hard fighting, X makes it to the command center, and is surprised to find that for the most part, everything is intact. The biggest damage was focused on the roof, which was blown completely off with many flying Mechaniloids trying to launch attacks on the command center. But they are being repelled by a few large artillery cannons and Signas, whose arm cannon fired off large burst of explosive energy that blew up any of the smaller Mavericks that fell from the Mechaniloids. The navigators were all barricaded behind a set of force fields in the center of the room, and Alia was one of them.

The moment X entered the room, Alia saw him and exclaimed through the explosions "X! You finally made it back!" X was both surprised and relieved to see Alia was alive, and with a gasp of relief he then ran and slid under the gunfire to get between the barricades and end up where Alia was at, lifting himself up and turning around quickly so he could kneel down and lean against the central computer. Alia wasted no time in saying "I'm guessing Zero's fighting valiantly against the Mavericks down below."

"Yeah. Alia…Can you tell me what the situation is? Your message was cut-off when you reached us." X asked, keeping things professional for the time being since the situation was dire. Alia nodded her head and then lowered her right hand down to a metal pocket attached to her hip, pulling out a data cube that she had stored and showing it to X before explaining "Not long after this Maverick attack happened, I analyzed the behavioral pattern of the Mavericks and focused in on a single Mechaniloid that's organizing the attack. That helmet upgrade you got from Light's armor is perfect for using this data to seek out the Mechaniloid and destroy it."

X didn't hesitate to grab the data cube from Alia's hand and scan it with his eyes, downloading the data into his mind and finishing once his eyes glowed. Nodding his head, X then said "I can stop this threat now, but are you sure you'll be alright here?" Signas answered for her by stepping in front of them and blowing up a Mechaniloid with his arm cannon, remarking while surprisingly keeping his cool "I can hold the line here X. Just destroy the enemy commander before they can do anymore harm."

"He's right. Signas has fought for an hour straight without taking a single scratch…And I don't think he's going to stop anytime soon." Alia said with faith in Signas' capabilities, and X didn't waste anytime in slipping between the barricades and then dashing past Signas while stating "Good luck Signas!"

"Heh…Now that you're here X, we don't need luck." Signas said proudly before he focused entirely back on the battle at hand. X ran back through the HQ while using the info Alia gave him to try and find the Mechaniloid. But after but a few minutes of running around, X is called out by a voice that was familiar to him. "X! You're alive!" The voice was very hot-blooded, and thankfully X did not have to stop at all for the person in question, who was a violet colored Reploid with green kneecaps, a yellow and purple arm cannon, and a visor with a red circular scanner on it attached to his helmet.

With a smile on his face as this person ran beside him, X exclaimed "Mac! You managed to survive the onslaught!" Mac grinned and stated as he aimed his arm cannon to destroy some Mavericks "Like I'm going to go down anytime soon! So you and Zero answered Alia's call, yeah?"

"Of course. Zero's taking care of Mavericks a few floors down, and I'm off to defeat the commander." X stated with joy in his voice that his friend was alive, and Mac grinned and looked at X before stating "Well it's a good thing I ran into you. I've got some important information to give to you. I heard some of the Mavericks stating that they were able to coordinate this attack thanks to a traitor within the Maverick Hunter HQ itself."

X widened his eyes in surprise and stated "You can't be serious. Who would sell us out to the Mavericks?!" Mac closed his eyelids and let out a melancholy sigh before stating to X with some great deal of reluctance in his voice "X, you aren't going to like this…"

Before X could even recognize it, Mac aimed his arm cannon at X and grinned menacingly before firing off an electric shot that struck X and sent him flying against a nearby wall while wrapped around an electric barrier. As X grunted in pain and was dropped onto the ground with his body forced to kneel. Mac walked up in front of the fallen X and raised his arm cannon up, his voice becoming a little deeper as he quietly said "Oh X…You're always so trusting and naïve…"

Snapping his left fingers, Mac calls forth a small pod Maverick that splits open and unleashed a magnetic force that picked the trapped X up as he woke up from the blow to his body. Looking through the barrier, X stated with a disbelieving tone of voice "M-Mac…W-Why?" Mac grinned at X and told him "Wouldn't you like to know? Don't worry X, you'll understand soon enough. Now, time to take you back to my employer."

Tapping a couple buttons on his arm cannon, Mac commands the pod to follow him as he waves his left hand to the right and then starts to make a dash for the rendezvous point, but not long after he made his move with X in tow behind him Zero ran into the immediate vicinity and glanced to the right upon seeing X being trapped in the electric sphere, which made him remark bluntly as he leaped over some debris "Hey! Where do you think you're going?!"

Not recognizing that Mac was the kidnapper in question, Zero went after them in hot pursuit, with some Mavericks getting in his way as he did so. But against the might of Zero's Z-Saber, none of them stood a chance, especially with him steadily determined to save his friend. As Zero swung the sword in front of his face for a moment he exclaimed "X, hold on, I'm on my way!" After a few more seconds, Zero and Mac run out onto a broken metal bridge high above the HQ, and once Mac reaches the end of the bridge he doesn't hesitate to turn around and face his pursuer with his left hand held out towards the sphere X is trapped in.

Pausing a few good feet away from Mac, Zero scowls a little and says "Mac?! So you've gone Maverick on us, huh?!" Mac grinned at Zero and said bluntly "Oh please. You Hunters and your overuse of that term. I'm not going Maverick at all, I'm just being logical and joining the winning side!"

Zero asked with a firm glare in his eyes "And just who is that meant to be?" Mac chuckled at that remark and then said "Wouldn't you like to know? You're not even going to live long enough to find out."

"Hmph…It's not even that hard to guess who you are working for. I was just hoping for an admission from you before I took you down." Zero stated while grasping his sword in both hands and holding in front of him, but Mac then snapped his fingers and made the sphere go in front of him before remarking "Stupid Hunters…So desperate and paranoid. You're going to run yourselves into the ground with your paranoia before you ever come close to stopping us. And if you try and attack me, I'll just use X to block your attacks!"

Not long after that, the HQ starts to rumble as a giant Mechaniloid rises up behind Mac, with this one having a very gargantuan and armored body with a frightening head, broad piston-like shoulders with spiked balls attached to electric chains acting as it's arms, and a large UFO-like lower body that kept him suspended in mid-air. Zero looked at the Mechaniloid with little fear, and Mac exclaimed after laughing maniacally "Hahaha! Maoh the Giant, time for you to crunch Zero!"

Zero, however, responded to Mac's threats and back-up by revealing his own arm cannon and aiming it right at the pod keeping the electric shield contained and remarked "Mac, you made a big mistake. You see, the thing is…X and I know how to cover each others backs!" Firing a charged shot from his arm cannon, Zero destroys the pod and causes the shield to drop, and X widened his eyes open and it's revealed his body was glowing as he has been storing a charged shot all this time.

In his arrogance Mac did not notice this, and right after X lands on the ground he turns around and aims his arm cannon up at the head of Maoh the Giant before stating calmly "Thanks for bringing the Maverick commander to us, Mac." With a powerful charged shot, X strikes the head of Maoh the Giant with so much force that the head immediately explodes apart, with Mac turning his head around and letting out an exclamation of "NO!" as the giant Mechaniloid is covered in explosions while it drops from the sky.

Suddenly, Zero runs in front of Mac and holds his Z-Saber up close to Mac's neck as he turns his head back around, and calmly Zero says with a firm expression on his face "You're under arrest Mac for conspiring against the Maverick Hunters. There's nowhere for you to run." Mac grit his teeth and stated "H-How…?!"

X walked up beside Zero and replied with "Alia's data cube contained information pertaining to your decision to betray the Maverick Hunters, so after I downloaded the information all I had to do was lure you out while pretending to go after the Mechaniloid while Alia contacted Zero and had him get into position. Then while your guard is down, you'd lure out the Mechaniloid commander and give us a chance to destroy it."

"Now…We're going to take you in for questioning in regards to your alliance with Dr. Doppler." Zero said while not holding back on his Z-Saber, and Mac just grit his teeth and then started laughing quietly at Zero's threats, leading to Zero commenting "What's so funny?"

"…You aren't going to take me in. You think you'll ever find evidence of my allegiance that you can use to invade Doppler Town? Hehehe…HEHEHEHEH!" Mac burst into eerie laughter before X raised his arm cannon up and proclaimed "There's nowhere for you to run, Mac!"

"Wrong…" Mac bluntly remarked, and without earning he suddenly stepped backwards and purposely fell right off the edge of the bridge before either Zero or X could grab a hold of him. "NO!" X proclaimed as he kneeled down at the edge and swung his hand out to try and grab Mac's hand, but as the traitor fell towards his inevitable death on the ground he proclaimed as hard as he could "All hail the Doppler Army! HAAHAHAHAHAH!" His laughter echoed throughout the air until his body crashed against the ground. X and Zero, though they felt relieved that the HQ was safe, were also disappointed that they couldn't bring Mac into custody…

With the chaos of this Maverick attack at an end, the Hunters began their slow recovery. A few hours passed as the technicians worked to get the communications arrays fully functional, and once they were done the first thing Signas did was contact the government and mention everything that happened regarding the attack, including the details of the report X and Zero submitted regarding Mac's last words. However…

"What do you mean we aren't allowed to act on Doppler Town?" Signas inquired in a rather bothered tone of voice as he stood near the central computer and looked up at a hologram projecting about eight government authority figures shrouded in shadow along with one video feed of Dr. Cain's holographic form on one of the squares. The central authority figure remarked in response to Signas' question _"You still have no genuine evidence regarding Doppler's involvement with the Mavericks."_

"Is the report I submitted not good enough? Mac stated that he was working for Doppler's Army." Signas calmly remarked, and another government figure, a female one, said afterwards _"But it's only a report. You have no video footage or audio recording of this 'admission'. A report is not good enough."_ "Even though they are the words of X and Zero?" Signas inquired immediately afterwards.

" _No one is above laws and procedures Signas…And while X and Zero are certainly trustworthy, we can't make an exception to our rules, not even for them."_ The central government figure remarked, and Signas already had a reply repair as he took his right fist out and punched down on top of the keyboard in front of him, remarking as he did so "I lost thousands of good men today. The time for procedures has long passed."

" _We understand your losses Officer Signas…But many humans died in the initial attack on the HQ as well. We are just as interested in attacking and stopping the perpetrator as you are, but there's no way to override diplomatic immunity without some hard evidence. But if it makes you feel any better, we have already made the decision to help compensate the Hunters for their losses today. In a few moments, Colonel of Repliforce should be there with a few hundred of his finest men and technicians to help you repair the HQ."_

"…Repliforce, huh?" Signas said while folding an arm behind his back and laying a hand on his chin, and one of the older government figures remarked _"I assume this isn't a problem, Officer Signas?"_ Signas shook his head and remarked "Not at all. That just surprised me. I will be ready to await them here."

" _Excellent. Signing out then."_ The eight shadowed figures sign out, leaving Dr. Cain there on screen to hear the disgruntled sighs of Signas. _"I dislike this situation as much as you do Signas…But be patient, a solution will come up eventually."_

"Former Commander Cain…With all due respect, but I know you're having difficulty taking our side on this considering Dr. Doppler is your dear friend." Signas commented, leading Dr. Cain to sigh and state _"I know…But it is hard to admit that a friend of yours could possibly have gone rogue…That's why I'm hoping something else is going on here. Please do not try anything rash…That advice goes for X and Zero as well."_

Dr. Cain then signs off, leading Signas to sigh and turn around while X and Zero entered the room, with Zero remarking as he approached Signas "Did the discussion with the higher-ups go well?" Signas could only shake his head and reply with "Unfortunately, they didn't take the report you two gave me as good enough evidence to go after Doppler. Even more, they are sending Repliforce to 'help' us out."

"Repliforce? That's an interesting decision…" X commented on, and Signas himself replied with a nod of his head and a remark of "More than like the government is using Repliforce to keep an eye on us…Or it's a genuine show of support after our losses. I hold nothing against Repliforce themselves, they do great services for the humans and Reploids, but the thought of us being considered untrustworthy in this situation just bugs me a little…"

"Then we need to find some way to convince them that we're in the right here." Zero said calmly, and Signas nodded his head again and stated "And I have just the plan in mind to accomplish that." Signas guided X and Zero over to Alia's computer, where the navigator was hard at work charting out a map of a large scale city. In particular, she marked out eight locations around the outside of the city with mugshots of different Mavericks.

"We've been keeping an eye on Doppler Town ever since he achieved diplomatic immunity for it…He's been building eight facilities for different purposes, but as of now these buildings aren't filed under the same immunity agreement as the rest of the town due to being incomplete. So right now, those facilities are the only safe spots in Doppler Town for us to investigate." Alia explained in great detail, and X remarked afterwards "It's the best shot we have of finding evidence."

"Correct. I'll do what I can to keep Repliforce out of sight of your activities just in case they were sent to spy on us. The two of you should go investigate the facilities in the mean time." Signas remarked, and Zero said afterwards while crossing his arms together "This would be a little easier if our Commander was still around…But didn't you say he's off on government related business with General of Repliforce?"

"Yes. But we'll manage just fine though without him around." Signas commented, and after examining the computer screen enough the doors open up into the room to signify that someone was entering the room. Signas lifted his head up and put on a respecting expression as he whispered "And here they are…" There were two figures walking into the room at this very moment. One was a Reploid as tall as Signas with a similar facial structure and a military-grade white suit of armor with protective plates attached to a belt around his legs. He had predominantly red arms with a bit of bulk to them, and a colonel's hat attached to his head, making it clear just who he was and what his rank was in Repliforce.

The second figure, who timidly stood beside Colonel as he entered the room, was a small girlish Reploid with long brown hair, a red and blue "dress" whose skirt extended to her kneecaps, a metallic handkerchief around her neck with a blue "R" representing the symbol of Repliforce on it, and pure white gloves and legs. She had a small navigator's communication device attached to the right side of her head, indicating what her role was within Repliforce. Zero and X looked at her with a curious expression on their faces, and upon seeing Zero in particular the girl reacted with embarrassment on her face before awkwardly glancing away.

Colonel and Signas approached one another, with Signas putting a smile on his face as he extended his right arm out and stated "It's a pleasure to see you again Colonel." Colonel, who had kept a professional expression up until this point, cracks a bright smile and then shakes Signas' hand while commenting happily "It has been too long Signas. I wish this meeting was happening under better conditions, but it is good to see you again."

The two break their hand shake off, and Colonel turns to look at X and Zero, remarking with a more professional look in his eyes once more "And you two are X and Zero. I believe this is our first meeting, isn't it?" The two Hunters nodded their head, with X being the more proactive of the two by extending his right hand out to greet Colonel while remarking "It's an honor to meet you sir. I've heard many brave tales of your successes."

"They are nothing compared to yours X, if I must be perfectly honest." Colonel humbly remarks, and he shares a handshake with X for a moment before then doing the same thing with Zero while commenting "And Zero…I never thought I'd get to see you after your supposed death, but it seems miracles are abound in this world of ours…"

"Heh, miracles only happen once Colonel. Still, I'm glad I get to meet the famous Colonel of Repliforce." Zero said, but then Signas had to interrupt by remarking "A meeting that unfortunately will have to be cut short for now…As you and I have much to discuss regarding the reconstruction of the HQ, Colonel."

Colonel lifted his head up and glanced at Signas, telling him professionally "You're quite right Signas. But before we go discuss things in another room, there's someone I would like to introduce Zero to." After paying little attention to the girl's presence, Colonel makes her the center of attention for a moment by stepping aside and remarking with his arms folded behind his back "Zero, allow me to introduce you to your new navigator…My sister, Iris."

Iris nervously tries to hold herself together while standing in front of the two famous Hunters, and with her arms crossed in front of her metallic skirt as she holds a clipboard in her hands she remarked in a somewhat adolescent tone of voice "I-It's an honor to m-meet you both, X and Z-Z-Z-Z…" She could barely bring herself to say Zero's name, and if she was a human her face would be very red with embarrassment. Zero smiled and calmly asked "You ok there, Iris?"

The girl could not focus her eyes on Zero's face for more than a couple seconds at a time, remarking as she did so "I-I'm sorry Mr. Zero. I'm just a big fan of yours, and when I was told that I would be your new navigator…W-Well, I didn't know how I would react once I met you." Zero extended his right hand out much to Iris' surprise and remarked gently "Well just act around me like you would any other average joe."

"I-I don't know if I could do that, Mr. Zero…" Iris stated, and Zero said "Well we'll just have to work on that then. For now, let me show you around, help you get situated with the navigational computers we use. I wish things were in a better condition though." "I-It's alright." Iris stated quietly.

"X, I'm going to take Iris around for a few bit. I'll join you later." Zero says as he turns around, making sure to whisper into Zero's ear so Colonel wouldn't hear him. Iris then slowly followed Zero close behind, with Colonel remarking not long afterwards "Make sure not to let her get into any danger, Zero." His voice was firm and quite serious, but underneath showed a great deal of care towards his sister.

Colonel then nodded his head towards X and said to him "I'll be seeing you later, hopefully." Him and Signas then walk off to discuss their own matters, leaving X alone for the time being with the mission Signas suggested he undertook regarding Doppler Town. X walked over to the computer Alia was working at and saw that she had finished setting up the map, but before he got started on the mission he asked "Hey Alia, you've been pretty quiet since Repliforce showed up. Do you not like them?"

"Huh?" Alia was confused by the question and then turned her head to look at X, laying a hand against her communicator before remarking to him "Sorry X, I've been really focused on my work here. What did you just say?" X shook his head a little and then remarked "Never mind, it's not important. So you've compiled all the information you can regarding the facilities?"

"Yep. Unfortunately, I only have pictures of the Mavericks to go on at the moment…Save for the one called Blizzard Buffalo. I think maybe you should investigate the facility he's at first, X." Alia stated while pointing at said Maverick on the screen, with X rubbing his chin a little before replying with "I've heard of him…He's a retired Maverick Hunter. He must have gone to Doppler Town for sanctuary. If he's become a Maverick now…"

"Lets not jump to conclusions X. You'll only know for sure once you find him." Alia commented, and then she tapped away on the keyboard to set up the coordinates for the teleporter. "Thankfully the teleporters are still operating properly." With one hard click of a final key, Alia had everything ready to go, and with a firm nod of his head X was ready to go. He ran out of the commander center and made his way for the familiar teleporter room, stepping inside of it ready to head off to Blizzard Buffalo's facility, beginning his new mission to seek evidence against Dr. Doppler…

 _Next Time: The Frozen Artist_

* * *

 **Author's Note:  
**

It's nice to be back to writing these kinds of stories. Good news for all of you fans of the last one though. This one will be updated every three to four days instead of being a once a week sort of deal. So look forward a more steady stream of updates for this one.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Noble Creature of Snow, Blizzard Buffalo**

With a quick and stable warp through time and space, X is dropped down right into enemy territory and immediately finds himself having to stabilize himself upon realizing that he was standing atop a very frozen roadway. Once X prevented himself from slipping, he looked around the immediate vicinity and saw that it was not just the road that was frozen over, but everything for a couple miles on end. Fallen buildings, street lights, and even the river running through the area were all covered in a frosty but slick layer of ice that reflected beautifully the light of the descending full moon.

With questions on his mind, X laid a hand against the side of his helmet and inquired to Alia "What happened here?" Alia replied rather quickly with an explanation of _"From what we've researched, Doppler has used the ruins of an abandoned city for materials and space for his own town. This area must be space he's planning to use for later purposes, though right now he seems to have been content to give the area up to Blizzard Buffalo…"_

"Wonder what he needs all this space for…" X inquired as he looked around a little more, and Alia told him _"Blizzard Buffalo always had an artistic side to him from what I heard. He must want to use all of this ice to create grandiose pieces of artwork. Honestly X…I wouldn't try and attack Blizzard Buffalo unless he forces your hand, since he doesn't appear to be causing any trouble around these parts."_

X squinted his eyelids a bit and looked on ahead, noticing a few sentry drones wandering about in the sky before he stated "Then there's no reason for these drones to be around. This facility isn't anywhere close to the outskirts of Doppler Town." _"There's drones there? Then that means we are on the right track here with our investigation…Or perhaps Doppler was recently attacked and he set up some defenses around his facilities to protect himself."_ Alia theorized.

"Or he's wanting to protect it from me…" X bluntly remarked, leading to Alia telling X calmly afterwards _"I'm just throwing around whatever theories come to mind X. You won't know any answers until you go deeper into the facility. You won't be able to avoid confrontation with the drones, but try and not cause too much trouble, especially since the facility is frozen over and one wrong move could destabilize the building right on top of you."_

X held onto his arm cannon and looked on ahead, remarking as he does so "Thanks for the heads-up Alia. Tell me any more information as you get it." X then proceeded on his mission, sprinting forward along the frozen road as he makes his way for the facility, taking into account the friction that he would have to endure along the slippery ice as he moved. The drones are alerted to his presence and turn around to face him, opening their frontal plates up and unleashing a gatling gun barrage to try and hurt X.

While charging his buster, X leaped over the gap between different parts of the road and then slid underneath the drones the moment he got to the other side, using the momentum from his earlier sprint to propel himself forward along the road at high speeds while the drones swerved their bodies around to keep their guns looked onto X with no available, their bullets chipping apart the ice as they fire down. X turned his body around and slid on his stomach while firing a charged shot off to destroy both drones at the same time.

After taking out the initial patrol drones, X flipped his body around and saw that he was continuing to slide right towards the entrance of the facility, but if he kept going at this speed he would surely suffer damage from impact against the wall. Thus by using his Air Dash boots to work against his momentum, X slowed down enough that his feet only pressed against the frozen stone wall just a little bit upon impact. X then stood upright and took a moment to glance over the ledge, and saw a small slope leading to a small spike pit and a ladder right above it.

Knowing where to go, X grabbed the edge of the ledge with one hand and then pulled himself up, suffering a little bit of a slide forward thanks to the momentum he used to get up, but in the end that just allowed X to quickly leap into the air and grab onto the first rung of the ladder, swinging on it with a very tight grip for a few seconds before clenching it with his other hand and beginning his short ascent to the top, which brought him into the heart of the facility. Inside, the walls were broken open all around and there was not a window in sight, with the heavy amount of ice being the only thing keeping this place from collapsing.

X looked up ahead and saw a few more drones flying around, these ones carrying within their bodies a few small missiles. It was certainly an interesting decision to have those types of drones when explosives would easily lead to the destruction of this area, but X assumed that it was meant to bury any intruders under the rubble of this building if nothing else worked to stop them. However, he wasn't going to let them fire off even a single missile, leading to him quickly running forward and leaping over onto a slide of ice, laying on his back and aiming his arm cannon up at the drones as he goes sliding down the area.

He just needs a series of rapid-fire shots to puncture one of the missiles within the drones and cause them to go off, creating an average sized explosion every time that happens in mid-air and prevents the building from even being scratched. After sliding for a couple more seconds, X drops down a small shaft and flies towards an icy metallic wall, where X quickly straightens his body and holds his hands forward to attach to the wall, which allows him to slowly slide down until he drops straight down to the next floor of the facility.

On this floor, there wasn't any enemies in sight, and things were rather quiet much to X's surprise. But he knew that meant something was up ahead that would attempt to catch him off-guard, and with a firm expression on his face X went on ahead and then leaped at a wall to begin slowly climbing it with a series of jumps, all the while keeping his arm cannon out just in case he had to attack an enemy quickly. Once at the top of the wall, X is prepared to land on the ledge when all of a sudden a grenade is lobbed right into his face, which goes off and hits him with a small explosion powerful enough to make him plummet back down to the floor below with a heavy thud against it. The attack came from one of those bipedal, spherical Mavericks that X saw during the attack on the Hunter HQ.

The explosion knocked X for a bit of a loop as he landed, but he was at least able to get back onto his feet in a matter of seconds and then lean himself up against a wall so he could take a break and contact Alia about what he just saw. "Alia, some of those Mavericks from the attack on our base are here." _"It's certainly suspicious…But those kinds of Reploids are mass produced these days, so it's not too surprising if Doppler decided to grab a few for himself for defense. Just destroy it and move on."_ Alia replied, and while she was talking X charged his arm cannon and then leaped off the wall he was leaning against to get to the one on the other side so he could launch a charged shot from a safer distance at the Maverick that attacked him before.

Once that was destroyed X proceeded along the icy floor until he had to drop down another shaft, where two more of those cannon Mavericks were ready to take him down with grenades, but X responded to their presence by ducking down and letting the grenades they lobbed pass by each other and blow up on the opposite Maverick to blow them both up. X then lifted himself up and ran forward, dropping down onto a small ice slide and slipping up, falling on his stomach and being sent hurtling down to the next floor.

It was a miracle that there were no spikes waiting for X at the bottom of the floor, but the X did feel a bit shocked once he landed, and once he rose to his feet he brushed the slightly skid marks on his armor that were put there from how roughly he slid down the ice. After he was done with that, X saw a couple of familiar sliding steel doors up ahead, and experience taught him that beyond those would lie Blizzard Buffalo…But to X, it seemed way too early for him to be meeting the former Maverick Hunter.

Sure enough, upon walking through the doors, X was not greeted by the usual passage and instead went directly into a large-scale room filled with a bunch of ice statues. The amount of ice in this room fogged up the atmosphere incredibly, and X had to activate his internal heater to protect himself from the sub-arctic temperatures for the time being. X opened his mouth and breathed, a small cloud of frost coming out as he slowly walked through this museum of frozen statues.

The most obvious thing to note were there were a number of statues shaped like Blizzard Buffalo himself, giving X the knowledge that he was a very bulky Reploid with a buffalo's face, large fists and two-toed hooves, and pipes that fueled the Reploid with cold energy. But there were other statues in this room as well, such as one based on a very large Walrus-like Reploid with tusks made of crystalline ice and the familiar Chill Penguin. As X noticed these statues, Alia said to him quietly _"Frost Walrus of Repliforce…Ex-Hunter Chill Penguin…It seems as though Blizzard Buffalo is a fan of making art based on ice-elemental Reploids."_

X stopped in front of a statue of a Reploid he didn't recognize who had a wolf-like design with frosted hair, sharpened claws on his hands and feet, and an overall powerful presence despite it being just a statue. Once there, X looked down and saw that this statue had a plate on it, remarking as he looked it over "It's a memorial statue for a Reploid called…Blizzard Wolfang? I've never heard of this guy before…Alia, have you?" As X stood up and waited to get an answer from Alia, but she surprisingly went silent.

"…Alia?" X tried to get her attention with a concerned inquiry, and she remarked with a stutter afterwards _'"H-Huh? Sorry X…I was thinking about something for a moment. Sorry to say, I'm not familiar with that Reploid. I'll look into it later if you're interested, but you should just get out of this area and move on to Blizzard Buffalo. This museum is just a waste of time."_ Alia was rather blunt about X moving on, and X decided that he did agree with the idea and just weave through the rest of this small museum until he was out of there.

In this next part of the facility, the lighting was a lot dimmer as X had now gone underground and there was nothing of the outside world in sight, just a series of pistons going off in the background nice and slow. Moving on with the help of his night vision, X goes through a couple stretches of icy floor without any enemies getting in his path that he actually paused for a moment and glanced behind him upon landing down underneath the light of a faulty ceiling lamp, thinking that perhaps he was about to be ambushed.

The chill going through X's circuits thanks to the increasingly colder atmosphere did little to help his concerns, and after letting out a few short breathes he slowly turns himself around and stepped forward at a snail's pace. There were droplets of cold water plinking against the ground, followed by a slight howl of wind moving through this underground tunnel, and X then noticed something odd on the ceiling. A rugged clod of blue ice was dug into the ceiling, and compared to the metallic ceiling it was very out-of-place.

X aimed his arm cannon up and fired upon this ice, and his suspicions were confirmed when the ice dropped from the ceiling in the form of a crystalline armored drone with a central eye and a hidden turret on it's underside. The icy drone fired some spread shots from it's turret that covered the ground near X's feet in a spray of bullets that sparked upon hitting the floor, leading to X being forced to jump back as some of the bullets nick through his leg armor. But as he leaped back he prepared his arm cannon for a charged shot and then aimed precisely at the center of the drone to destroy it in a single attack.

Once X landed on the ground a slipped back a couple feet along the ice, he recognized what type of defenses this part of the facility had and focused most of his attention on the ceiling as he moved forward, which allowed him to destroy a couple more of those drones while jumping over spiked pits, ending once X made it to a ladder and used it to climb his way out of the underground. The light began to return to his eyes as he went higher and higher up, culminating in the full luminescence of the moon reaching him once he wall jumped back into the outdoors. He had now exited the facility, though there was another building off in the distance that X could see the roof of from where he currently stood. That had to be where Blizzard Buffalo was hiding.

X took care of a couple drones patrolling the area and then suddenly got a message from Alia, who told X bluntly to _"Find cover for a moment! I'm detecting something you might be interested in this immediate vicinity."_ X quickly pulled back and leaned against the backside of the facility, laying a hand against the side of his helmet before inquiring with a surprised look in his eyes "What's up?"

" _This doesn't make any sense…According to my scanners, I'm picking up a faint signal for a Dr. Light capsule close by."_ Alia's words lit up X's interest, and he commented with a great deal of surprise in his voice "D-Dr. Light has a capsule in this area? How?" To X's surprise, Alia could not find a definitive answer to the question and replied with _"Well, we've established that Dr. Light's hologram is sentient before…It's entirely possible that he can move his capsules around as well, wouldn't you agree?"_

"…Then that just begs the question as to how he knew I'd be here." X pointed out, with Alia telling him afterwards _"That's just something you'll have to ask him X. At the very least, you can certainly use the armor upgrades in case you run into any heavy resistance, so I suppose we really shouldn't be having problems with this type of convenience. Though I do wonder why I didn't detect the signal sooner…"_

As X left Alia to think about that, he proceeded back along the given route while keeping an eye out for anything suspicious, scaling a few large steps until a heavy amount of snow starts to fall down from the sky. It wasn't nearly blinding to X's line of sight, but he had to activate his night vision again to be able to see the outlines of the ground and any enemies that may be in his way up ahead. At the top of the steps, X lands onto a patch of broken highway and stands still for a moment to see what his options were.

Between two patches of road was a large twister that was likely responsible for creating this miniature blizzard, but X had no idea if he would be able to make it back up here if he went down to destroy the machine creating the twisted, so he decided instead to just leap straight at it and use an Air Dash to push through the high gusts and land on the other side of the road. But upon landing he skid forward quite a bit, and there was a Maverick riding a car straight towards X a moment later.

X didn't bother to destroy it, instead choosing to jump over it and let the car skid right off of the side of the road and crash down into the tornado creating device to destroy it. X got a bit of déjà vu from that, recalling when a similar thing happened when he went after Overdrive Ostrich, but that memory lasted only a moment before X focused back onto his mission and went on ahead across the highway. With the blizzard gone, X no longer needed the night vision to move on, but it took him a moment to drop it as for a moment he saw something poking out from a secluded room that looked like the top of Dr. Light's capsule.

There was a large gap between the portion of the highway X was on and the thin ledge X would need to land on in order to reach the room, but X ran forward at his top speed and then leaped right as he reached the edge of the highway. He used his Air Dash boots to close most of the distance, but even with all this combined X had to swing both of his arms out and grab as hard as he could onto the slippery ledge. The slickness of the ice meant that X had to act fast to pull himself up, which while difficult due to the lack of traction, eventually ended in his success.

After letting out a sigh of relief, X walked forward until he approached the capsule, and the lid popped off and levitated in mid-air as the engines of the machine whir to life and the hologram of the old and kindly Dr. Light appeared in the air. Upon looking at X, Dr. Light cracked a little smile and then remarked _"It's nice to see you again X…Though it seems as though you have once again been dragged into a horrible battle."_ X remarked to Dr. Light after a momentary pause "Possibly…Right now I'm investigating a potential uprising of Mavericks within this supposedly peaceful town."

" _Hmmm, and investigation you say? To be able to investigate to the best of your ability, you should be able to reach all possible locations with relative ease. Your standard Air Dash boots are quite potent, but they only allow you to move greater distances horizontally. X…Step into the capsule, and I shall give you the first piece of the Third Armor, a set of foot parts that will allow you to perform the Variable Air Dash, which will allow you to boost through the air for short distances in all directions."_

After Dr. Light explained what part he was giving X, he made his hologram disappear for a moment so X could get the foot parts applied to his armor. Stepping inside the capsule, X was consumed by a stream of data that transfigured his body to place the new part onto him. After a few seconds, the data disappeared, and X stepped out of the capsule wear some new foot armor. It shared a lot of physical similarities to the Second Armor's feet, but with thicker plating around the lower legs and tougher, orange colored kneecaps.

Once X was out of the capsule, Dr. Light appeared again and said to him _"I know you will use these parts wisely X. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors."_ X glanced over his shoulder and then turned his body halfway around before holding a hand out and saying "Wait, Dr. Light…There's something I have to know."

" _What is it X?"_ Dr. Light anticipated the question happily, and X responded by looking straight at his creator and saying "How did you know that I was going to be here?" Dr. Light paused for a moment and then raised a hand to his chin, rubbing it before replying _"I am capable of detecting where you're at X. So I knew you were coming to this area at some point. I wish I could just directly place these capsules close to your location, but I don't know where you'll teleport to and I can't risk dropping them into open space since they'd be detected by the enemy."_

"I thank you for doing all of this for me Dr. Light, don't get me wrong, I just was a little curious to know how you were keeping up with me…That's all." X said, and Dr. Light cracked a smile and remarked _"Don't take my response to mean that I am offended X. Curiosity is but one part of discovery, after all. Oh, and I suppose I should say right now that your friend should change the frequency for her scanner. These capsules have a different signal to them than the last batch. Otherwise, I can only wish you good luck until we meet again, X."_

With that remark of good will, Dr. Light's hologram disappeared and the capsule deactivated, and as X turned around to leave the room Alia remarked _"I'll get to work on modifying the scanner for later. Right now, you should be very close to Blizzard Buffalo's chamber, so it's time to see what's going on here…"_ X leaped down from the icy ledge and landed near the entrance of the building, which was protected by the familiar sliding steel doors.

X walked to these doors and let them slide open, allowing him to walk down a small passage within the surprising intact interior of the building and make his way through one more door to end up in the final room of this facility. Inside, the room had the temperature of a large refrigerator, but also had a peaceful allure to it that made X feel comfortable despite being in the middle of enemy territory. Moonlight glistened through the two large windows in the room, and at the very end a figure could be seen working on a large ice block.

The figure was Blizzard Buffalo, who looked exactly the same as the statue of his likeliness depicted, though just a little bit bigger. Steam emerged from both sides of the Reploid's face as he looked up at his ice block, and after a few seconds of contemplation Blizzard Buffalo swung his hands out rapidly to chop down the ice block into a sculpture that he wanted to make. His movements were swift but very, very precise, as he was able to perfectly create a statue of his likeliness out of the ice block in a matter of seconds, a feat that would put even the best of artists to shame. With his work complete, Blizzard Buffalo took one of his large hands and rubbed his chin, remarking in a very soothing but accented tone of voice "Hmmm…A crack in the side. I used too much force there…But it seems I'll have to wait a little bit to try again."

Blizzard Buffalo slowly turns himself around as X approached him, and with a respectful bow of his head he said "Maverick Hunter X…It's an unexpected surprise to see you here. How are you doing?" X was quite surprised by the hospitality the Reploid showed him, and responded kindly by lowering his arm cannon and remarking "Blizzard Buffalo…I'm here running an investigation into a recent attack on the Maverick Hunter HQ."

"Oh? And why did you come here specifically?" Blizzard Buffalo quietly inquired, and X gestured his right hand out and explained to him "One of the Hunters who betrayed us said that he was working for the Doppler Army. But as you know, we can't investigate the main part of Doppler Town, so we decided to check out the facilities around the town for anything that might indicate a connection between the attack and Doppler."

"So you're taking advantage of the lack of diplomatic immunity in these parts to perform an investigation. Unfortunately, I know nothing about any 'army' that Doppler might have. I mostly spend my time around this facility, practicing my statue crafting art in peace. I have much to thank the good doctor for, especially since he gave me a vaccine that would prevent me from going Maverick. I'm sorry X, but you will have to look somewhere else for any evidence." Blizzard Buffalo remarked without sounding the least bit dishonest about his knowledge.

"Thanks for being cooperative Blizzard Buffalo. I'll leave you to your work now…" X said with an appreciative nod of his head, and Blizzard Buffalo slowly turned around and began to move back to his ice statue, examining it for any flaws and such while X turned around and laid a hand on his helmet to communicate with Alia. "I don't believe he's lying. I'm honestly surprised to find that he hasn't gone Maverick…" X said, glancing back and admiring the work Blizzard Buffalo was putting into his craft.

" _Hmmm…I think you should investigate a little bit outside. The fact that there's some of those cannon drones around here is still pretty suspicious…"_ Alia remarked, and X did nod his head in agreement at that and remarked quietly "Yeah, I guess I should still look around. So long as I don't disturb Blizzard Buffalo, we should be fine…"

X then lowered his hand and prepared to make his way for the door. Meanwhile, Blizzard Buffalo was continuing to examine his statue unimpaired, but he had a bit of a harder time now ever since he finished talking with X. There was this annoying twitch coming from within his head that just wouldn't go away, and Blizzard Buffalo lets out a few quiet grunts until the pain spreads to further parts of his body, making his grunts turn into groans of pain as a voice begins whispering in his head to "Kill X…"

"Grrr…GrRRRRRRR" Blizzard Buffalo's grunts become audible, beastly roars as he blows cold steam from his snout and suddenly thrusts his right fist out angrily against his statue, shattering it apart and finally grabbing X's attention before he was ready to leave the room. X quickly turned around and saw Blizzard Buffalo in agony, his hands grasped against his head as he slowly turned himself around and rammed his body against the back wall a couple times while X ran forward and exclaimed "What's going on? Blizzard Buffalo, are you alright?!"

"G-Grrrr….K-K-Kill…X…." Blizzard Buffalo stood in place while muttering this out, and X widened his eyes upon hearing him say that, realizing that it seems as though something was forcing Blizzard Buffalo to start going Maverick. Widening his eyes with absolute fury on his face, Blizzard Buffalo raised his right fist up and loudly proclaimed "KILL X!" He then slammed his fist straight down, breaking right through the floor and unleashing a multitude of icy spikes around his hand as X leaps back to avoid the attack, aiming his arm cannon at the once peaceful Reploid as he finds that battle is now unavoidable.

X fired upon Blizzard Buffalo with simple buster shots, but it did nothing but irritate the Maverick when they struck his face. Blizzard Buffalo then pulled his hand from the ground and swung it out, throwing out a series of icy arrowheads to try and penetrate through X's armor, but X backflips out of the way, leading to only one of those projectiles penetrating through the side of his arm cannon. But the attack didn't go deep enough to prevent X from firing it, and he charged it up quickly so by the time he landed he could point it at Blizzard Buffalo and fire a charged shot.

However, the Maverick suddenly charged forward by releasing a heavy burst of cold steam, and while the charged shot struck his face and seemingly did some damage Blizzard Buffalo, the Maverick still pressed on unimpeded and rammed right into X with a heavy amount of blunt force from his forehead. X was sent flying across the room, slamming right against the back of the nearby wall and bouncing right off it a moment later, where Blizzard Buffalo then continues to ram forward and slam X right back against the wall with his forehead, using his horns to hold the Hunter in place by puncturing the wall on both sides of X's body.

X raised his arm cannon up and placed it against Blizzard Buffalo's head, charging up energy while the Maverick presses forward a couple times to apply pressure to X's body and make it harder for him to concentrate, but even though X grunted in pain he managed to fire off his charged shot point-blank, creating a strong burst of energy that broke off a small plate of the Maverick's face and pushed him back a bit across the ice.

X landed on the ground and panted a bit, surprised by how much damage he had taken considering the higher defenses he had from taking in the properties of the last two armors into his body. Knowing he could not afford to screw around, X quickly prepared another charged shot and ran forward, firing upon Blizzard Buffalo's chest and causing a decent sized dent to be placed in his massive body, but the Maverick retaliates by slamming his left fist into the ground with enough force to tremor the room and send a series of ice spikes across the ground at X.

X swerved to the right and then prepared another charged shot, ready to fire it down at Blizzard Buffalo's legs to down him, but the Maverick responded by swinging his right fist out in a hook and hitting X straight in the face with a heavy enough blow to disrupt the circuitry in his body and make him slam against a wall, creating a large set of cracks while X's focus on his arm cannon is broken. X creaks his eyelids open and sees some static in his vision appearing occasionally, but he could see that Blizzard Buffalo was ready to attack him with a strong punch. Gritting his teeth, X knew he had to get out of this situation quickly.

X charged up his arm cannon again and pulled himself from the wall, using his new Air Dash boots to launch himself right over Blizzard Buffalo and then turn around to aim his arm cannon at the large engine on his back that was producing all of the cold steam, and with quick reflexes before the Maverick could turn around and hit him X fired off his charged shot and punctured right through this engine, releasing all of the pressure within in an explosion powerful enough to make Blizzard Buffalo's body burst apart in multiple parts, with his legs caving, his tubes coming off of his broken arms, and the dent expanding outward and blowing apart from within.

X lands on the ground and skids into the wall as the bulking Maverick collapses onto the ground, seemingly defeated by X's efforts. X held his arm cannon down and walked over to Blizzard Buffalo, who was struggling to pull himself up with his broken hands. "W-What…W-What happened…?" He said, tired and confused being his prominent emotions as he turned his head slightly and saw X barely standing beside him. "…X? D-Did I…Did I fight you?" He inquired.

"Blizzard Buffalo…What's going on here?" X inquired, and Blizzard Buffalo looked absolutely dumbstruck as he replied "I-I don't know…I saw you…And then some voice told me to kill you…And t-then I just…lost control of myself…I don't know what could possibly have h-h-happened…" His voice became weaker with every breath he took, and it was clear that the damage he had taken was getting to be too much for him to bear.

"Hold on, we can get you repaired!" X remarked, and Blizzard Buffalo stated "I-It's too late for me…You destroyed my engine…The one thing keeping me alive…And my body is broken all over…I can barely see…Barely move…Barely talk…" X stated firmly and honestly to the Reploid "…I'm sorry…I didn't want this to happen…"

"I-I-I know…You did what you had to…Urk! …As a Maverick Hunter…I hold no ill will towards you….X…" Blizzard Buffalo remarked, and then he raised his right hand up slightly and said "Something…Is going on here X…But I don't believe it's Dr. Doppler's fault…He took me in…Gave me a chance to make art in peace…Why would he ever betray his inhabitants? Please…Don't blame him…for my death…"

Blizzard Buffalo lowered his head against the ground, and with the last of his breath he said "Life is like art…It is quite beautiful…" His eyelids close, and he lays his arms against the ground to accept his death in peace, and X grit his teeth out of irritation for Blizzard Buffalo's demise. He was a kind soul who just wanted to get away from the Maverick Wars, and now his final moments were spent being nothing more than a berserk Maverick. X honored Blizzard Buffalo's demise by taking on his powers via laying a hand on the Reploid's body, then upon copying his power his body briefly became icy blue.

X then stood upright and was quiet for a few seconds before he contacted Alia, telling her with a melancholy tone of voice "…Alia…Blizzard Buffalo suddenly went Maverick. I was forced to terminate him…" Alia responded solemnly with _"I saw that…It's really odd that he suddenly went Maverick like that. It's definitely safe to assume that something is going on around here, and regardless of what Blizzard Buffalo said, Dr. Doppler has to be involved."_

"Right…Blizzard Buffalo felt like he was much stronger than he should have been too. Maybe whatever caused him to go Maverick also made him stronger…Alia, you should warn Zero about that before he runs into any of the Mavericks." X remarked, and Alia replied afterwards _"He already went off to investigate the underground sewers. I'll tell Iris to pass on this information to him. For now though, it's time for you to come back and get some repairs done, then we can continue the investigation elsewhere…"_ X nodded his head in agreement of that, and after a few seconds Alia set up the teleporter to bring X back to HQ, carrying him away from this frozen facility and the corpse of it's kindly giant…

 _Next Time: From Zero's Perspective…_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Aquamarine Terror of the Sewer, Toxic Seahorse**

As X was busy dealing with going through Blizzard Buffalo's facility, Zero was helping Iris get used to the command center of the Maverick Hunter HQ. Though things were in the midst of being repaired, Zero did not need to raise his voice in the slightest over the sound of active machinery, and as he explained everything Iris happily nodded her head and did not say a word. Once he was done, Zero turned to look at Iris and asked "You've been pretty quiet. Do you have any questions?"

Iris shook her head and said "N-Not at all Mr. Zero. You're very good at explaining things." Zero smiled and remarked "I've been in the Maverick Hunters for a few years now. I've had to show a few new Hunters the ropes, but for you I just have to show you around the command center. Speaking of which, how long have you been a navigator for, Iris?"

Thinking back on that a little, Iris explained after a momentary pause "I've been a navigator for a little over a year now. It was around the time Sigma started his first rebellion. But I was around a while before that, created around the same time as my brother, Colonel." Zero remarked after hearing that "That's right…I remember hearing that Repliforce had the first brother and sister Reploid unit in their ranks. So you were a navigator for Colonel before being assigned here, is that safe to assume?"

Iris nodded her head in response, leading to Zero then folding his arms together and remarking "I've heard a lot of good stories of your brother. 'The Indomitable Guardian' is his nickname, for he hasn't lost a single unit under his command." "Just like you, Zero. At Repliforce, everyone holds you in high regard." Iris replied with absolute praise in her voice as she closed her eyelids and held her arms before her chest.

"You especially, right Iris?" Zero remarked with a humored chuckle as he gestured an arm out from his body, and Iris looked a little embarrassed to be acknowledged like that until Zero told her "I'm just doing my job, just like everyone else. But a Hunter is nothing without a good navigator or partner. Iris, can I trust you to be the best that you can be?"

Zero's voice, showing no pressure towards Iris, was enough to make her confidently nod her head and put on a more professional expression as she proclaimed as loud as she could "Yes sir, Mr. Zero!" The workers paused for a moment upon hearing Iris' abundant enthusiasm, but Zero just casually smiled and remarked "Heheh, you don't have to be so formal you know. Anyways, I think it's about time I join X in investigating the outskirts of Doppler Town. Do you know which computer you want to use for your navigation duties? We have a lot open right now."

"I think I'll take the one next to Mrs. Alia." Iris said while pointing in that direction, and Zero remarked in an intrigued tone while the two of them went to that computer "Hey, that's not a bad idea. If the two of you stay close by, then you share information with one another, just in case something X does might be helpful for me or vice versa. With a team of four, we should be able to get to the bottom of this investigation."

Iris sat herself down on the chair beside Alia's, and the navigator turned her head to look at Iris and remarked "Do you know how to run the computer?" Iris put on a serious expression and then lifted her hands up, tapping away at the keyboard at a rather unnatural speed, impressing Alia and Zero as Iris managed to get the same settings up on her computer as Alia had in ten seconds flat. Iris then reached for the mic on her head and adjusted it a little, remarking after she did so "I'm all ready to go Zero. Where do you want to investigate first?"

Zero was taken aback by how professionally Iris' tone suddenly became, but he was more or less impressed by the time he said to her "Since X is already doing his own investigation, I'll try checking out another facility on my own. What's your suggestion?" Iris looked over the map in fron to her for a few seconds before extending a finger out towards a sewer area. "This sewer appears to be connected to a nearby dam. It's run by a Reploid by the name of Toxic Seahorse. I think it might be worth investigating, especially since the dam is very close to a human populated city."

Zero crossed his arms and nodded his head, remarking afterwards "…Toxic Seahorse, huh? Alright, set up the coordinates. I'll head to the sewers and check things out. Get me whatever info you can on the Maverick, and tell me once I arrive." "Absolutely Zero!" Iris responded as she immediately worked on setting the coordinates up for the teleporter that Zero made a sprint towards at this very moment. Leaping into the capsule, Zero is teleported off to the sewers where Toxic Seahorse resides.

Sure enough, the immediate things that Zero encounters upon reaching the sewers is the dirty flow of sewage at his feet, barely any lighting, and a bit of a strong odor. But Zero did not let these things affect him, and he quickly set up his night vision while laying a hand on the side of his helmet to contact Iris, who was all too ready to tell him _"Now that you're there, let me tell you a few things about Toxic Seahorse. His body is made of a liquid metal, and he's efficient in using multiple toxins to his advantage. However, because of his body composition, he is very susceptible to ice based attacks. You should be able to defeat him by using your Shotgun Ice technique."_

"…Wait, Shotgun Ice? Iris, that's something X got from Chill Penguin. Besides, I can't copy powers like he can." Zero pointed out after a momentary pause of surprise at Iris' choice of words, and Iris remarked while trying to keep her professional tone _"H-Huh? I thought you were the one who destroyed Chill Penguin…Hmmm…Well, you should still have some sort of ice technique available to use, right?"_

"Can't say I do. I've never really considered adding other elemental moves into my fighting style. You said Toxic Seahorse had a liquid metal body right? That means he's got little in the way of protecting himself from my Z-Saber. I should be fine with just that." Zero said, and after pulling himself from the wall he was leaning against he ran forward and leaped out of the tunnel he was summoned in, gaining a bit more light to use while he remarked to Iris "I'm beginning my mission now. Let me know if anything comes up that I need to watch out for."

" _Can do. Good luck Zero!"_ Iris gave a confident remark towards Zero before he truly began his mission, and Zero reached towards his back and pulled his Z-Saber off of it, summoning the blade and then sprinting forward ready to go. Unlike X, Zero threw most caution to the wind, as he was more quick on the reflex if something came to threaten him. Leaping over a steel ledge, Zero came across his first enemy, a green Reploid twice his size with piston shoulders and a very tough looking frame.

The Reploid raised his right arm and fired a laser straight at Zero, but while running to the left Zero held his sword out beside himself and cut the laser in half before going straight for the Reploid, focusing on the right arm in particular as he then raised his sword up and then cut right through the joint between the shoulder and the arm itself, slicing cleanly the arm off from the rest of the body. But the Reploid still functioned without it and tried to punch Zero in the side of his body under the assumption that he wouldn't be able to react in time.

But after flipping his sword around, Zero swung his arm to the right and then pierced the tip of his Z-Saber through the fist of the Reploid before it connected, pinning the fist against the wall at the same time. Zero then pulled his sword free while simultaneously cutting up the Reploid's arm up until the point that it was split in half at the shoulder. Zero then spun to the left to finish off the Reploid by cutting it in half diagonally.

The two halves of the Reploid fall to the ground, but Zero has already leaped over them and made his way straight to the next Reploid in his way, which was of the same class at the one he destroyed. The Reploid tried the same tactic of firing a laser at Zero, but Zero jumped straight over it and used his magnetic boots to drop himself straight down to the ground while using his sword like a cleaver to split the Reploid in half vertically. Zero then stands up and spins his sword around once before going around the Reploid he just destroyed and moving on to the next part of the sewers.

Leaping down to a pipe ledge, Zero then runs a short distance across it and then drops down onto solid ground before turning around and moving on ahead. One of those turret Mavericks that had attacked the HQ was in Zero's way, and he drew his sword out as the Maverick fired a grenade straight at him. With a swift cut of his Z-Saber, the grenade blew up a safe enough distance away from Zero, but clouded his vision with a good amount of smoke and prevented him from noticing the second grenade until it struck him.

The grenade exploded upon Zero's armor at the chest and pushed him back, and he let out a grunt of pain and forced himself to grind to a halt before he slammed against the wall. Zero then remarked quietly as he grinned a little "Looks like this one has some strength in it's attacks." Zero then ran at the Maverick again, but this time went to the side of it and swung his sword out to the left of his body to cut it down, running forward afterwards as the Maverick explodes.

He then ends up looking up at a couple waterfalls of sewage, but there was a high vertical shaft that Zero could climb with some wall jumps and patience, and with no other way to go unless he wished to dive into the sewage below Zero leaped off the ground and jumped off the nearby wall behind the sewage waterfall to begin climbing his way up the shaft. His body got covered in a bit of sewage, but the sleekness of his body allowed him to not get too drenched by the stuff as he made his way up.

Some enemies got in his way not long afterwards, but Zero was able to take the flying drones down with some swift sword cuts and avoided the grenade fire from the spherical Mavericks by sticking to the walls until they fired off a salvo and let him dash off the wall to get close enough to cut them down. Then Zero wades through more flowing sewage and jumps up a couple more floors, and the sewage flows even more as he gets closer to the top.

Zero kept his cool though and kept going higher and higher, realizing that it was hard to see an end in sight with all of the sewage in his way, but he knew there had to be an end…An origin point to all of this sewage, to be precise. And sure enough, he found the top of these waterfalls and sliced down the one Maverick in his way, landing safely on the metallic floors and realizing that he was starting to get out of the deeper recesses of the sewers, especially since everything looked much cleaner up here.

But before Zero could move on after a sigh of relief, he suddenly received a message from Iris stating to him _"Zero, Alia has some important information to pass on to you that X gave her."_ Zero paused for a moment and listened in before he stated "Patch me in to her then." After a moment's wait, Alia called in to Zero and told him _"Zero. X wanted me to tell you to be careful around here. The enemies are a lot more powerful than what you're used to, and it seems the Mavericks guarding these facilities are much stronger as well."_

"Did X run into trouble with the first Maverick he dealt with?" Zero inquired with some calm concern in his voice, and Alia replied _"He's taking an extended break to recover from his battle, but now that he's aware of the threat he's going to be a lot more cautious wherever he goes next. I'll patch you back in to Iris now."_

"Heh, that's X for you…Alia, before you switch me back, I want you to do me a favor. Tell X to stick around at the HQ for a bit. I'll bring back a part of Toxic Seahorse so X can absorb whatever power he has. He should be able to use it later." Zero remarked, taking into consideration what his friend's ability was as he made that comment, followed by Alia saying to him _"I'll do just that. Now, patching you back in to Iris."_

After a moment, Iris asked Zero _"Are you worried at all about having to face tougher enemies?"_ Zero shook his head and closed his eyelids, casually remarking in response to the question "They don't seem too bad so far. It's all just a matter of paying attention and learning what your enemies are capable of, then dealing with them appropriately. X got caught off-guard by our stronger foes, but he'll make up for that later."

" _Alright, but I'll try and log the enemies you encounter so I can determine their weaknesses in case you do run into trouble. Zero, you'll soon be running into the lake created by the dam's water flow. There's a lot of water to trudge through, but you should find Toxic Seahorse at the sewage facility beyond the lake."_ Iris remarked with the utmost confidence in her voice, and Zero smiled a little and said "Thanks for the information Iris. I must admit, I've had very little experience with underwater areas."

Zero then began to move on towards the next area, as Iris commented to him _"That's true. You've never had a recorded trip underwater before. It's a good thing Reploids have pretty good water resistance, otherwise you'd sink like a rock and not be able to move."_ As Zero reaches the edge of the stone metal ledge that leads down into the water, Zero lifted his head up a little and remarked "Yeah, you guys certainly have to thank Dr. Cain for that. Anyways, I'm heading down into the water now, so our communication line will be disrupted for a while. Contact me once I get out of the lake."

" _Roger that! Good luck Zero!"_ Was the last thing Iris said before Zero leaped off the ledge and dropped straight down into the water, making a heavy splash due to the weight of his body combined with the speed he fell. Zero began to descend to the floor of the lake, and found himself having to activate his night vision due to how dark the depths were. But there was something that caught his eye the moment he did this, and that was a strange murky series of clouds moving through the waters.

Glancing to the left where the clouds were originating, Zero saw many purple towers positioned within the water, all of them glowing with a pale green light as they slowly deposited something into the water. Zero took a moment to scan the materials, thinking to himself as he was shocked by the results _"These are toxins…That Maverick is poisoning the water supply here. How despicable…Is there nothing these Mavericks won't ruin?"_ Keeping this information in mind for later, since he couldn't contact Iris at the moment, Zero turned to the right and observed whatever parts of the lake he could, and recognized that the only enemies in the way were some mechanical turtles with spikes on their shells.

Wanting to test out what they were capable of, Zero grabbed the attention of one of them by holding his buster up and firing a small shot. The turtle Reploid turns and fires up it's pipe-shaped thrusters, moving through the water at a very high speed to try and ram itself straight at Zero. Zero takes into consideration what water resistance he had to deal with before leaping to the right, and once the turtle got close he cut it across the side of it's body to take it down. But before it died, the turtle detached it's shell and launched it up, and Zero knew it was meant to hit whoever had killed it's body.

Knowing now that the turtles were fast and attacking them from above would be a bad idea, Zero landed on the ground with the help of his magnetic boots and then gripped his Z-Saber, nodding his head once and then making his way forward to the other side. It was a slow process for the time being, but Zero expected nothing less from this underwater domain. He took down whatever turtles got in his way with swift and precise sword strikes, something he had to time a little more considering the resistance he had to deal with, but Zero actually picked up on how to deal with underwater movement rather quickly.

" _Guess all those times I reviewed X's notes on his mission against Launch Octopus and Bubble Crab helped me out here…"_ Zero thought to himself as he air dashed underneath a few ceilings of spikes and began to make his way towards a small cavern, one that had a couple of steel doors blocking the way forward. Zero knew he wasn't going to encounter Toxic Seahorse down here, since he hadn't gotten back to the sewers. Therefore, there had to be a tougher machine in this coming room for Zero to deal with.

Zero entered the room, and sure enough a squid-like machine swam into the room with the help of some jet-propelled tentacles, and once it was positioned upright and center in front of Zero it began to flail it's tentacles around to try and attack Zero while simultaneously firing missiles from pods on it's head. Zero uses his buster to shoot down the first salvo of missiles as he runs towards the underside of the machine, using his Z-Saber to attack and slice though the middle of the tentacles to prevent them from being used against him any further.

After the tentacles were down, Zero stabbed his Z-Saber straight up into the underside of the squid machine and pierced deep enough to reach the core, and with a pull of his arm against the resistance of the water Zero managed to rip the core from the rest of the machine and cause it to deactivate instantly. Zero then moved forward while swinging the core off of his sword, and he calmly walked through the next set of doors unimpeded as the machine fell against the ground behind him. Some water was flushed out into the next room before the doors sealed it away, but Zero kept to the ground with the help of his magnetic boots.

Now that he was back into the sewer area for the moment, Zero laid his hand against his helmet and asked "Iris, I found some toxin deposit stations out in the lake. Does the signature of the toxins I scanned match that of the ones Toxic Seahorse use?" Iris received the data Zero had gotten a while ago, and was thus able to immediately reply with _"They are exactly the same. That means Toxic Seahorse is purposely poisoning the water supply here…"_

"But is he doing it on his own, or because someone asked him to do it?" Zero inquired, and Iris remarked a moment afterwards _"I don't know Zero. But I'll get someone to warn the humans not to drink any water coming from the lake until we can get it purified. You focus on getting to Toxic Seahorse."_ Neither Zero nor Iris had to say anything beyond that for the time being, and Zero began to scale his way up this shaft with the help of both his swift wall jumps and the ladders spread about.

Once he was at the top of this shaft, Zero ran forward and ended up atop the wall of the side of the dam where most of the water was flowing, and there were a couple small bulky red Reploids with a couple small turrets mounted on their heads walking around on patrol. Zero ran at the first Reploid and used his sword to cut off one of their legs, making their weight imbalanced and getting them to fall off the wall into the water. He then moves forward and swings his sword in the other direction to do the same to the other Reploid, freeing the way for him to cross the wall and make it to the building on the other side.

Dropping down while sliding against the side of a wall, Zero looked to the right and saw another of those Reploids guarding the ladder down to the next floor. Keeping to the wall, Zero lifted his buster arm up and fired a charged forward, breaking through the small missiles fired his way and taking down the Reploid simultaneously. Zero then leaped off of the wall and air dashed over to the ladder, climbing it down and finding himself in front of another set of steel doors. Now he knew for sure that he was at Toxic Seahorse's domain, and without hesitation Zero held his sword out on the right side of his body and walked through the doors and passage leading to the secluded room within the facility where the Maverick resided.

Inside there was a generator in the distance to the left that was being flooded a little by sewage. After glancing at that, Zero looked forward and exclaimed "Toxic Seahorse! I know you're here! Show yourself!" A moment of guttural laughter fills the room, and Zero looks to the left again as all of a sudden a large Maverick slips his way right into the room. He had the body of an elongated seahorse, with a neck and tail stretched out by a series of yellow orbs with a single spike on each one. At the end of the neck was a seahorse's head with a very long grated snout, at the end of the tail was a strange sphere. He had a rotund lower body and a noodle-like waist connecting it to his upper body, and he had two small legs keeping himself upright.

Positioning himself in front of Zero a fair distance away, the primarily green and yellow Maverick remarked with a stern look in his eye and a grainy voice caused by the grate in his snout "So the Maverick Hunter Zero has come to visit me. Funny, I was expecting X…" "You were expecting him?" Zero inquired with a curious look in his eyes.

"Of course. Word has already spread that X has attacked and destroyed Blizzard Buffalo. All facilities outside Doppler Town have been alerted to keep an eye out for X. I must admit, you're quite gutsy to attack us all when we haven't been affected by diplomatic immunity yet." Toxic Seahorse remarked in an almost taunting manner, but Zero didn't waste any time and quickly told him "Well it's a good thing I came here. Otherwise I wouldn't have uncovered your little plan to poison the water supply."

Toxic Seahorse paused for a moment and lifted his head up high and confidently, remarking to Zero a moment later "And what proof do you have that I'm too blame? Last I checked, I purify toxins from water supplies." Zero shook his head and closed his eyelids, bluntly telling the Maverick "Don't give me that. We ran a cross examination of the toxins you release with the ones in the water. They are both the same, right down to the very last molecule. Besides, if you were really doing your job here, there wouldn't be any toxins in the water in the first place."

"…Hehehe…So what if I am responsible?" Toxic Seahorse suddenly extended his arms out and remarked arrogantly, and Zero raised his eyebrows up and remarked "Excuse me?" The Maverick explained immediately after that "Last I checked, you're a Maverick Hunter. You don't have the authorization to do anything regarding environmental problems, such as toxins in the water. You can't do anything to me."

Firming his expression into a solid glare, Zero told Toxic Seahorse bluntly as he held his sword up at him "Shut up. The very act of harming humans is considered Maverick, and there's no way the toxins aren't going to poison some of the humans down in the city. Therefore, there's a good enough reason to label you as a Maverick, Toxic Seahorse." _"But why? Why would you turn Maverick and betray the humans you are supposed to protect?"_ Iris stated loud enough through Zero's communicator so the Maverick could hear her.

"Why? It's simple really. Doppler Town is a perfect sanctuary for people like me…But it's not big enough, not yet. But a lot of the area around Doppler Town can't be expanded unless we run a few thousand humans out of their cities. Obviously though, we can't just attack the humans without breaking the diplomatic immunity clause Doppler has with the humans. So out of my own free will, I chose to slowly push the humans out of their cities with toxins in their waters. And once they are all gone from the cities, Doppler Town will be able to expand even more." Once Toxic Seahorse's explanation was at an end, Zero had nothing but a look of sheer disgust on his face.

"So Doppler didn't put you up to this, huh? That's what you're claiming?" Zero asked, and Toxic Seahorse responded bluntly with "Of course not! He doesn't control us. We work entirely of our own free will!" Zero closed his eyelids and remarked "Hmph…I'm sure I'll find evidence to the contrary later on, but I guess I was hoping you'd just give me a confession now and save me the trouble."

Zero then grabbed his sword in both hands and swung it out in front of him, remarking to the Maverick "I guess instead I'll just do my job and destroy the Maverick standing in front of me." Toxic Seahorse laughed at that claim and told Zero bluntly as he stretched his arms out and puffed up the scales on the end of his neck for intimidation "You should know better than to mess with the likes of me Zero. I'll bury you in the toxic depths, and this time no one will be able to rebuild your body."

Zero slants his eyebrows and then lets go of the handle of his sword in one hand, lifting his buster up and firing a warning shot off at the Maverick foe to get him to react, but the Maverick swerved his neck to the right to move his head out of the way while throwing his left hand up and summoning forth a small tube that allows him to launch out some globs of green liquid straight at Zero. Zero cut down the globs with a downward swing of his sword, but then watches as the bits of liquid hit the ground and start sizzling through it, indicating that they were acidic.

It made sense as a move, since toxins weren't going to do anything to a mechanical being like Zero, but it was a good thing his Z-Saber is composed of energy or that move would have robbed him of his weapon before he had even gotten a hit on his foe. Taking a more cautious approach for the moment, Zero took a couple steps back and held his sword out beside himself while Toxic Seahorse threw some more acid balls his way, alternating which hands they came out of as he did so.

Zero waited a moment before leaped over the acid balls and bringing himself down towards Toxic Seahorse, slashing down with his Z-Saber as it grasped in both of his hands. But instead of letting himself get cut, Toxic Seahorse swerved his body to the left and then swung his tail out, wrapping it around both of Zero's arms and placing the pointed tip into his right one so his tail would stick for the time being. Toxic Seahorse then lifted his right hand up and tried to hit Zero's face with some acid spray.

But Zero swerved his head to the right to avoid it and then used his strength to pull Toxic Seahorse off the ground, using the fact that his tail was wrapped around his arm to then swing him around and slam him against the nearby wall, inflicting enough force to disrupt the Maverick's focus and make him let go of Zero's arms. Zero then fully summoned his blade again and lifted it up in both hands, preparing to slice down at the Maverick's body. Toxic Seahorse was very slippery though, and peeled himself right off the wall and slinked out of the way of Zero's attack, leading to the blade cutting through the wall instead.

Toxic Seahorse then raised his hands into the air and launched a few acid balls into the air, making them all burst to send a rain of said acid down at Zero. Zero raised his sword up and spun it around as fast as he could so not even a single drop could touch him, but he was then forced to remain stationary so he wouldn't hit the acid rain around him as it burned through the floor. Toxic Seahorse swung his tail out once the rain came to an end, striking Zero in the chest with the spikes on his tail and pushing him back a little bit.

With Zero's chest punctured, the Hunter responded by leaping to the right as Toxic Seahorse went to the left, and he raised his arm cannon up and quickly fired a charged shot out at the Maverick, who dodged it and then swung his tail out to wrap it around Zero's arm cannon, telling him as he glared him in the eyes arrogantly "You missed…" Zero grinned and didn't say a word as he lifted his sword up, and all of a sudden Toxic Seahorse found him widening his eyes in reaction to a large bang coming from behind him.

Toxic Seahorse makes the mistake of turning his head around to see what had happened, and finds himself watching as a gush of cold water sprays straight out from a hole Zero put in the machine with his earlier buster shot. "N-No!" The Maverick muttered in a panic, but while he was distracted with the incoming water Zero had used this time to cut Toxic Seahorse's tail clean off. Toxic Seahorse, in his anger, tried to turn around and burn Zero's smug face off with his acid, only for the water to gush right over his body and send a powerful chill through his systems.

The Maverick's eyes widened as he felt himself slowing down thanks to his liquid metal body being solidified, and Zero wasted no time in stepping back and performing three swift cuts with his sword in the shape of a "Z" across Toxic Seahorse's entire body. His sword moved through the metal of the Maverick's body like butter, and there was not a single response from Toxic Seahorse as Zero placed his now deactivated sword on his back and folded his arms together, watching as the Maverick split apart and collapsed down across the floor, utterly defeated.

"And that takes care of that…" Zero said with a sigh of relief, and he then walked over to his defeated foe and picked up a part of his tail from the ground, stating as he laid a hand against his helmet "This should be more than enough for X to copy this Maverick's power. Mission's complete here Iris, now you should be able to get someone in to take care of the toxins in the water. And hey, thanks again for that advice on how to stop Toxis Seahorse."

" _You're more than welcome Zero. Heh, I'm really impressed with how you handled that. Looks like you're just as cool and ingenious as the stories go…"_ Iris said with words of the utmost praise, and Zero widened his eyes a little a said in a jovial tone "Hey now, I'm sure most of those stories are just exaggerations. I wouldn't have died if I was really as cool as they say I am."

" _Not many Reploids can say they came back to life either."_ Iris pointed out, and Zero said in response to that "I suppose that's true, but it's not like I did it on my own or anything. It was all because of X, Dr. Cain and…Dop-" Upon realizing what he was about to say, Zero put on a bit of a melancholic look and then shook his head and said "Never mind…Bring me back to base, my investigation is done here." Iris didn't say a word but noted the change in mood Zero experienced as she prepared to teleport him right back to the Maverick Hunter HQ, his mission here now complete…

 _Next Time: The Nightmare Police_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The Unstoppable Quarry Beast, Tunnel Rhino**

Back at the Maverick Hunter HQ, Zero has returned from his investigation of the sewers and dam that Toxic Seahorse had domain over, and he was carrying a piece of the Maverick's body so X could copy his power for his own use. Walking to the command center, Zero saw some of the technicians of Repliforce working hard to get the ceiling back together, while Alia and Iris were still at their computers taking care of their business simultaneously. It wasn't until Zero approached them that they paused and turned their chairs slightly to look at him.

"Welcome back Zero." Iris stated happily, followed by Zero holding up the part of Toxic Seahorse's tail and remarking "Hey Iris, Alia…Has X finished recovering yet?" Alia was the one to answer on that end, stating to Zero a moment after he asked "He said he was on his way over. I told him you had a Maverick part for him to copy a power off of."

"Thanks for that Alia. I'll stick around here and wait for him then. Iris…How are things going with the water supply back at that dam?" Zero inquired afterwards, leading to Iris smiling and pointing out "Well, thanks to that hole you put in that filter, the toxic water isn't going to be anywhere near the human city for a while. I sent out some Repliforce members to help alert the humans of what happened, and then they can repair the dam and get the toxins removed."

"That's good to hear. At the very least, even if we aren't finding any evidence about Dr. Doppler's plans, we're still doing our job and eliminating Mavericks." Zero said, putting a good spin on the lack of progress he was making in the investigation thus far, and by the time he was done speaking the doors opened up and X began to walk into the room. X quickly ran over to Zero and remarked "Zero, you're back already?"

The two stood next to each other, with Zero turning to look at X as he said "Sure am. Here, I brought you a gift from my last mission." Zero then tossed the Maverick part over to X, who clamped it in both of his hands and immediately worked to copy the power into his body, which made his armor change to a green and yellow-ish color for a brief moment. "Thanks for this Zero. What Maverick did you get this from?" X inquired as he crushed the Maverick part with his bare hands and tossed it aside.

"Toxic Seahorse. He was targeting the dam at the edge of Doppler Town in hopes of driving out the humans in the nearby city with poisoned water." Zero explained while folding his arms together, and X went on to say in response to that "…Zero…How did Toxic Seahorse behave when you saw him? Was he peaceful at first?"

"I wouldn't say peaceful, but why do you ask, X?" Zero inquired, having a feeling he already knew why he was being asked this. X gestured his right hand out and told his friend cleanly "Blizzard Buffalo did not act at all like a Maverick when I first saw him, but then he suddenly went berserk and repeatedly said that he wanted me dead. It's really weird…It's like someone suddenly controlled his actions."

"You're suspecting Doppler had something to do with it, aren't you?" Zero got straight to the point, and X nodded his head before explaining "It doesn't make much sense otherwise, but we still have no evidence to go off of our theories here. For all we know, Blizzard Buffalo was really just that close to becoming a Maverick…"

"I don't think so. Doppler's not a fool, I think he'd be able to tell if any Reploid was about to turn Maverick, and he wouldn't want someone like them coming into his 'Reploid Sanctuary'." Zero stated, but then X pointed out "That's the thing though. Blizzard Buffalo stated that Doppler gave him something that is said to prevent a Reploid from going Maverick."

"What? You can't be serious…Clearly that's a lie." Zero pointed out, and X nodded his head in agreement of that but nevertheless pointed out "The existence of a way to prevent Reploids from going Maverick doesn't exist…But what if the opposite is true? What if Doppler created a device that could make a Reploid go Maverick whenever he wants?"

"It'd require something to be implanted within the Reploid's body though, wouldn't it?" Zero pointed out, and Alia then stepped in and remarked "Then what better way to trick a Reploid into having something like that put into their body then by promising to protect them from turning Maverick? Doppler promises sanctuary from the Maverick Wars…Reploids from all across the world come in…He implants a chip into their body…And then all it takes afterwards is a press of a button and Doppler has an army of Mavericks under his control."

X widened his eyes in disbelief of such a plan, stating to Alia immediately after such an expression "That's insane!" Zero then closed his eyelids and remarked "Ok then…So we should change our focus here then. Instead of investigating the facilities, we should go after the Reploids and/or Mavericks running them and see if we can maybe find out more about what Doppler did regarding their bodies. If they turn Maverick on us, we'll just destroy them and get the chip from their bodies that way."

"Sounds like a plan. Well…It's the best we got anyways." X pointed out, and Zero said to him afterwards "X, go ahead and head to another facility. I'm going to stay behind a moment and monitor your mission, hopefully then I'll see just how the Reploids act the moment they turn Maverick, that way I can discern between the behaviors of the two." X nodded his head in agreement and then walked over to Alia, leaning forward as she set up the computer screen with a map of the remaining facilities.

"Alright X, where do you want to go next?" Alia inquired, and after a few seconds of examining the map X pointed at a particular spot that looked like a tunneled out cavern filled with mining equipment. "That looks interesting. I remember back with the X-Hunters that there was a Maverick who was mining materials for Sigma's new body. If Doppler is using a Maverick or a Reploid to dig materials for him, then I'd like to stop it sooner rather than later this time."

"Seems like a sound plan. The Reploid assigned to this place is Tunnel Rhino, and as usual I'll have more information on him once you get there." Alia remarked, and with a nod of his head X prepared to head off for the teleporter. Zero wished him good luck and then stood between Alia and Iris to pay attention to the computer so he'd be able to monitor X's progress. X gets in the capsule and teleports off to the mining facility where Tunnel Rhino was at.

After a few seconds, X is dropped down onto the outskirts of Doppler Town, in a canyon region filled with towers that extracted oil and other liquids from the ground. Directly in front of X was a cavern leading deep into the mines, but before he moved on he contacted Alia and she explained to him _"Tunnel Rhino is a legendary miner who is responsible for many of the mining advancements humanity has made in recent years, especially with his ability to drill through pretty much everything. From the sounds of things, Doppler personally invited him to his town."_

"…So he's basically a historical figure, huh?" X inquired with a bit of melancholy in his voice, and Alia pointed out to him _"Yeah. I honestly hope he hasn't been given one of those chips…But if so, you have no choice but to take him out."_ X slants his eyebrows a little and remarked "That's all I can do is hope…" before moving on towards the cavern. As he made his way forward, X noticed some Mechaniloids up above carrying giant boulder in their metal suction cup hands while riding along bronze wires.

The moment X got close to these Mechaniloids though, they released the boulders, trying to squish X underneath them even though X quickly sprinted forward with his dash boots before they crashed against the ground and crumbled apart. X got underneath the cave safely and paused for a moment, cocking his arm cannon beside his head as he looked forward and made sure there were no other enemies prepared to ambush him. Even within the damp cavern walls, there was not a single enemy concealed, and X took a couple breaths in before lowering his arm and remarking "Got to be careful for ambushes…Cavernous regions usually are crawling with Mavericks."

X began moving on ahead, but as he went deeper into the caverns the invisible outline of a mysterious figure glistened for a moment as it stood against the side of the rocky wall due to a stray reflection of light, and once X was out of sight he moved away from the wall and quickly ran for the ladder to follow him downward, sticking himself to the side of a wall while X landed on the ground below. Observing X's cautionary movements as he slowly advanced through the cavern, the mysterious figure thought to himself _"Hmmm…This X figure doesn't look like much. I don't know why Dr. Doppler is wanting me to look at him."_

Dropping from the side of the wall, the figure lands on the ground without making a sound and watches as X sprints through the cavern and destroys a Mechaniloid that drilled itself into the ceiling in an attempt to block X's way through the narrow passage. _"Destroying a Mechaniloid that easily? Hmph, I could've taken out ten of those before he finished with one…"_ The figure then sprinted forward, moving so fast that even sound was left behind in his wake. He passed X by without creating even a single breeze, and then tried to stay ahead of the Hunter as he dealt with the rock covered drones that dropped from the cavern walls while he climbed his way up to higher floors.

Soon enough the figure stuck to the front of a machine that was turning the rocks in this area into mud to help sift through it all for gemstones and such, and while he laid both of his hands and feet back against the device he watched as X jumped off a wall and landed on the conveyor belt below the device. The figure then turned the wheel of the device to make it run at a faster pace, thinking as he did so _"Lets see how you handle this…"_

A good amount of mud is released from the tube in front of X, making him pause and leap back almost immediately, carefully walking back as he looked up at the machine and waited for the next release of mud to happen before he moved forward along the conveyor belt without being impeded. _"Hmmm…"_ The figure murmured quietly before quickly leaping over to the next device and activating it, and since this one was above a bed of spikes one mistake from X would send him to his death.

But X crossed the spikes with a jump before the mud could even come out, and he proceeded to wall jump up to the next floor. The figure followed ahead of him and activated a few more devices along the beaten path to trip X up, but nothing seemed to be capable of slowing him down. He was far too cautious, and observation that annoyed the figure quite a bit as he followed X past the devices and watched him while standing upside down on the ceiling close to a couple sliding steel doors. X looked around a little bit, and then walked past the steel doors while the figure dropped down and slipped past him again.

This time X paused in this secluded room while the figure stood against the wall above the door on the other side. The figure looked down at X and thought to himself _"He just seems like a cautionary Hunter…Surely there has to be more to him than this? Hmph, whatever, Byte and I will still get paid for our work regardless of how good he is or-"_ All of a sudden, the figure is shot at by X, with the buster shot nicking the wall to the right of his face as he stated "Show yourself! I know you're there!"

" _How did he know?!"_ The figure thought to himself with widened eyes, and then he looked down and saw a little bit of mud had gotten onto his right leg while he was busy activating all of those devices. Realizing that his cover was blown, the figure drops his cloak and lands onto the ground, revealing himself to be a humanoid Reploid with bright yellow armor, upright pointed shoulders, a small blue sake gourd on each side of his head, a noticeable pair of orange yang symbols on his chest, and hands protected by leather conductor gloves and pearl knuckles. The figure folded his arms together and levitated a bit off the ground with the help of a small gale, remarking as he did so in a barely impressed tone "Not bad, Maverick Hunter X…"

"Who are you?" X inquired while slanted his eyebrows, and it was not the mysterious figure who answered but surprisingly Alia, who exclaimed through X's communicator _"Bit?! I-Impossible…What are you doing here?!"_ The Reploid named Bit glared at X in response to that, stating a moment later with a little irritation in his voice "Alia…So this is where you ran off to. You decided to join the Maverick Hunters as one of their navigators?"

"What's he talking about?" X inquired, but Alia didn't respond to X and instead focused more on Bit as she asked him _"Answer my question Bit! Did Ga-…Your boss send you here to target X?!"_ "I don't need to answer myself to a traitor like you. Why don't you explain yourself to your supposed ally, Alia?" Bit slyly said to throw Alia under fire with his words.

" _X, don't listen to what he's saying. I-I did used to work with him as part of an organization called the Nightmare Police, but I never betrayed anyone, I swear."_ Alia said, and with how honestly Alia tried to speak under the pressure Bit was throwing her way X believed everything she said and remarked "Don't worry Alia, I believe you."

Bit scowled a bit at that response X gave her and said "Then your naivety is your folly, Maverick Hunter. Whatever…I didn't come here to deal with such meaningless reminiscence. Dr. Doppler hired me to keep an eye on you and learn more about what you are capable of now. But since you've blown my cover…" Bit reaches for his back and pull out a sleek bronze handled wrapped in yellow cloths, and with a press of the button a blade made of pure electricity compressed into a katana-like shape emerged from the handle. Bit floated sideways and held his katana in front of his waist, remarking to X "Then I'll just fight you myself to get more information. But be warned, you don't stand a chance against my speed!"

Bit quickly puts up an offensive by swinging his sword out in a flash and sending a spinning ring of electricity across the room. X tries to leap over it, but it tracks his movements with magnetism and strikes his body, expanding outward and wrapping X up in it's grasp before dropping him to the ground. Bit then dashed forward and tried to cut X down with his sword, but X broke free from the bonds with his pure strength alone and then swerved his body to the right to dodge the attack. Before Bit could quickly attack in another direction, X thrust his right hand out and punched the Maverick in the chest to push him back.

X then switched to an arm cannon and charged energy, firing off the very moment he sensed it was ready. Bit cut the charged shot down with a swift stroke of his blade, followed by speeding right over to X and kicking him in the chest to push him against the wall, followed up by stabbing his blade forward at X's chest. X swerved to the left as he fell to the ground, but Bit still managed to puncture a little bit of X's shoulder.

X turned himself to face Bit while recognizing the damage to his shoulder, and at that point he decides to switch things up by changing to Blizzard Buffalo's colors and using his arm cannon to fire off a small ice missile that pushed towards Bit and forced him to raise his katana up in defense. Bit grinded down the ice of the missile with the sharpness of his blade while widening his eyes and remarking "I know about your ability to copy other Maverick's powers! You really think such a simple trick would work?!"

X then suddenly rose up back to his normal colors and then swung his right arm cannon out at Bit's face, energy fully charged as he grit his teeth and exclaimed "Try this on for size then, Bit!" "What?!" Bit exclaimed as the charged shot went off in his face, blowing off a few bits of his helmet's plating and the left gourd. Bit stumbled to the right after that, and X followed up on this by trying to punch Bit in the face. Bit however quickly switched his katana over to his over hand and lifted the right one up to catch X's punch, stabbing his katana upward to puncture X through the arm a couple times before X switched to his arm cannon to pull himself free.

Bit then floated back a little and remarked "Not a bad trick…But you don't have nearly enough experience to defeat me." He then switched his katana back to the other hand and switched his left arm into an arm cannon, thrusting it forward as the metal looking flame on the top of his helmet flared up with light, allowing him to fire off a small meteor-like projectile from his arm cannon at X. The projectile missed X due to him jumping to the right, but it exploded with enough force to shake the room when it collided with the wall.

Bit ran at X and tried to cut at him with a series of fast slashes that came out almost in an instant, but the strength of the cuts was weaker and thus only nicked X's armor as they came out. X barely flinched and was thus able to focus his concentration on charging his arm cannon. Bit leaped back, but instead of X firing straight ahead he aimed at the ground, causing the ground to burst open and knock up a series of rocks at Bit's body, with some of them being lodged in his eyes and making is thus harder for him to see.

"W-What is this trickery?!" Bit said in a furious tone of voice before X summoned both of his arm cannons and charged them up, firing both shots at Bit and connecting with them, causing Bit to be blown back against the nearby wall with enough force to crack it greatly, though with only some minor damage to his armor. Bit pulls himself from the wall and scowled at X, and was about ready to continue the fight while raising his katana above his head, but before he launched off an attack he suddenly paused in place for a few seconds.

X raised his right arm cannon up, but Bit then sheathed his katana on the back of his waist and folded his arms together, levitating off the ground as he remarked to X begrudgingly "Hmph…Apparently I've gotten enough intel. I'm being called back to Doppler. We'll have to settle this some other time…Until then though…" Bit suddenly charged his right fist with electricity and punched the cracks behind him as hard as he could, forcing them to spread out so vastly that the entire room begins to tremble and the ceiling starts cracking apart. "Have fun…" Bit bluntly told him before teleporting out of the room.

The room continues to tremble until the ceiling collapsed in front of X, creating a landslide that blocked his way forward through the next set of sliding steel doors. X was thankfully untouched by the landslide, and he laid a hand against the side of his helmet to try and contact Alia, only to be met with a lot of static. "Hmmm…Guess I'll try climbing my way out of here and then contact Alia." X remarked, and after looking at the rockslide he ran towards it and ran his way up for a while until the high elevation forced him to wall jump the rest of the way out.

He ended up outside the cavern during a time when the sun was beginning to rise, and it seems a moment of bad luck was just leading to good luck on X's behalf as he ended up a fair distance away from a Dr. Light capsule. Widening his eyes in surprise for a moment, X slowly made his way over to the capsule to get it activated, leaping over a slight gap before it. The capsule activated, and quickly Dr. Light's hologram appeared before the awestruck X. Dr. Light then stated with a smile on his face _"You've done well to find this capsule already, X. Step into this capsule and you will acquire the Head Parts, which will allow you to scan for hidden items and weaknesses within your foes and environment."_

Dr. Light did not have much to say this time around, and X did not have any questions to ask. He just gave Dr. Light his thanks for his assistance, and then stepped into the capsule to acquire the next armor part. Being overwhelmed with data, X comes out of the capsule with a helmet that has something that looks like an orange and white boomerang crossing over the bottom of his helmet jewel. There were also two metal bands wrapped over the top of his helmet from the crystal. Stepping out of the capsule, X turns around to face the Dr. Light hologram, who says to him proudly _"Good luck X. I know you will do well."_

The capsule sealed up, and X turned himself around and dropped down the nearby gap to see if he could get back on the right path. There was a large boulder suspended in place by some steel bars, but with his new helmet X was able to scan the steel and realize that he could use his newly acquired power from Toxic Seahorse to melt the steel bars and drop the boulder onto the ground. Switching to those colors, X aims his arm cannon up at the bars and fires a bubble of acidic goop at them, and they are both melted through instantly, dropping the boulder and freeing the way for X to move on.

After leaping across the gap, X laid a hand on his helmet and tried to reestablish contact with HQ "Alia, are you there? Come in Alia, I'm still alive." Alia contacted X clearly with a sigh of relief and a remark of _"I was worried there for a moment when the ceiling collapsed…Glad to see you managed to survive Bit's attack. And it seems you managed to find another of Light's capsules while you were disconnected."_

"Yeah. Still…What's important to gather from this whole thing is that Doppler has hired someone to observe me. Zero might end up being a target as well, but I guess I don't have to tell him that myself…" X remarked, and after a momentary pause he said "Anyways, I'm going to continue the mission now. I should be getting close to Tunnel Rhino by now…" He then dropped the connection with Alia and continued forward, leaping down a ledge and ending up on a slanted piece of metal flooring.

X then hears something moving behind him, and turns around to see a boulder rolling his way from a large indent. X ran forward and dropped down a large chasm to escape the boulder, moving to the right once he say a ledge he could land on. However, the boulder bounced off the walls on the way down and landed close to X, forcing him to retreat through the nearby steel doors to try and escape it. The boulder chased him for a few good seconds after that until it crashed against the ledge that X leaped over.

After a pause, X went on ahead and ended up near a ladder, and after leaping at it he climbs up to the next floor. He runs into a drone covered in rocks and destroys it, then wall jumps his way to another ladder, at which point X begins to notice a series of tunnels within the walls around the cavern, none of them looking like they belonged in this area. X also noted the lack of opposition within the mines, but by the time he had gotten through his suspicions on that matter he had climbed to the top of the mines and ended up in front of the steel doors leading to what could easily be assumed as Tunnel Rhino's chambers.

X went through the passage and ended up in yet another secluded room, but this one had a ton of large tunnels spread across the entire cavernous region. X stayed in place until the room began to rumble, at which point he raised his arm cannon at the wall in front of him, which bulged out quite a bit until a series of rocks busted forward, the Reploid responsible for it emerging from the tunnel he had created a few seconds later.

The Reploid was built like a tank, with wheels on the heels of his bulky orange metal feet. He had exhausted vents acting as his two toes on each feet, and a heavily armored body with multilayered yellow shoulders and a main body that looks like it could survive the heaviest explosions. There was a massive drill on his right arm that was still active, a drill on each of his shoulders, and a drill acting as the horn. His face was shaped like that of a rhino's, naturally, with a green coloring acting as an odd contrast to the rest of it's primarily orange and brown body. Finally, his left hand was built with a heavy blue metal that looks as though it could break a house with a single punch.

"Must…Drill…Must…Dig…Tunnels!" Tunnel Rhino exclaimed with widened eyes that made it look like he was in a frenzied state. He had an old man's tone of voice, but with a ton of energy in him that didn't seem at all right from X's point of view. "Tunnel Rhino, are you alright?" X inquired while lowering his arm cannon for the time being.

Tunnel Rhino responded by releasing a ton of steam from his nostrils and foot vents, swinging his arms out and raising his head up as he exclaimed "If I don't dig I'm not living, if I'm not living I'm nothing! Hahahaha…! Let me dig through your body X! Let me dig, dig, dig!" Tunnel Rhino had clearly gone insane, and while gritting his teeth X raised his arm cannon back up and exclaimed "I'm sorry this happened to you Tunnel Rhino. I promise I'll end your suffering right here, right now!"

Tunnel Rhino starts the battle off by firing it's wheels up and charging straight at X, attempting to impale him with his drill arm only for X to leap over his body and attempt to fire a few buster shots from both of his arm cannons as he flips through the air. The small attacks did little to affect the heavily armored Maverick, but X began going for a charged shot in his right arm cannon while holding his left hand around the barrel. Tunnel Rhino pulled his drill out of the wall he slammed into and rotated around, this time his eyes glowed and he fired a couple of lasers out straight at X.

These eye beams pierced through a couple parts of X's armor, surprising him and making his concentration not stick well enough for his cannon charge, making it so X had to lower his arm cannon and then leap to the right before Tunnel Rhino could ram his horn into his body with his next charge. Tunnel Rhino spun himself around a couple times before he hit the tunnel he came out of, and then he raised his right arm up and fired the drill out straight at X.

X ducks to the right and lets the drill fly past him, where it goes straight for the tunnels behind him and begins drilling it's way through them with the help of a rocket booster until it winds it's way back around and pierces through the ceiling above X, moving at such speeds that X widened his eyes in surprise as he leaned back to dodge the attack. After the drill pierced the ground, it did not reappear again, and Tunnel Rhino spawned another one in his arm in a matter of seconds.

But during that brief period that Tunnel Rhino did that, he remained completely stationary and allowed X a chance to charge up his arm cannon, firing off a perfect buster shot right at Tunnel Rhino's chest, but it didn't even hurt him in the slightest. Tunnel Rhino then roared it's engines and fired the two drills off of it's shoulders, making them twisted through the air and then home in on X while releasing smoke from their backsides that causes a wobbly "X" shape to be created in the air as they cross paths on their way to their target.

X leaps back and then watches as Tunnel Rhino backs up, turns around, and rockets off into the tunnel he created. A large cloud of dust and smoke is kicked up, robbing X of most of his vision for the time being. Even so, he suspected that Tunnel Rhino was planning on using the tunnels to the left to launch a ramming attack while he was distracted with the smoke. Holding his right arm cannon close to his chest, X looked to the left and waited until he saw a flash of light coming from one of the tunnels, at which point X leaped back as the Maverick charged out of the tunnel and flew through the air to try and ram X as hard as he could.

But X managed to dodge the attack and Tunnel Rhino landed on the ground, spinning around as he tried to brake himself in place, giving X enough time to fire off a huge charged shot right at the Maverick's backside, but even with as much power as X could muster into his arm cannon Tunnel Rhino still didn't take any damage. He was an incredibly durable Reploid, one befitting his job of being a digger, but X knew he had to have a weakness to exploit. With only two Maverick powers at his disposal, X activated the scanning feature of his helmet and hoped that what he had would be enough to help.

As the data pops up in his vision saying that Toxic Seahorse's weapon is the best bet X had to victory, Tunnel Rhino fired his drill at X again, forcing him to leap to the right to avoid it while he switched to Toxic Seahorse's colors and aimed his arm cannon at Tunnel Rhino. The Maverick charged at him and tried to use his horn to impale X, but X leaped over and fired off an Acid Burst at the Maverick's back while it was vulnerable. The acid bubble struck and burst, releasing four smaller bubbles that used it's acidic properties to quickly melt into Tunnel Rhino's armor, revealing the inner machinery within rather quickly.

Tunnel Rhino then caught his drill in his arm as it flew back around and prepared to turn around to attack X again, but this time X switched back to his normal colors and ran clockwise around the Maverick's body to avoid his line of sight while he charged up energy, positioning himself behind Tunnel Rhino as he swung left and right to try and find X. But by then it was already too late, as X fired off a charged shot right into the vulnerable machinery within Tunnel Rhino's body, and he is able to destroy most of it all at once.

The Maverick does not react well to losing most of his inner machinery, with a few explosions going off within that makes his outer body bulge out and create a few large holes while he falls over, lamenting in a more normal tone of voice as he did so "W-What happened…to me…? All I wanted to do…Was continue to…fulfill my duty…" As Tunnel Rhino collapsed onto the ground, his entire body burst apart in one massive explosion, forcing X to raised his arms up as the remains of the Maverick shot out his way in order to protect himself.

X widened his eyes in disbelief at how sudden the Maverick's death was, and how his last words were spent lamenting what had happened to him. Wanting to avenge him, X went over to Tunnel Rhino's remains and hoped to find a chip amongst the many parts spread across the ground, but there was not a single thing in sight that resembled a chip. If anything, it was likely destroyed in the explosion caused by his demise. Gritting his teeth in anger, X went on to touch Tunnel Rhino's head to copy his power, at the very least hoping to use that later to stop Doppler's madness. His armor turned a combination of light-blue and sandy yellow for a moment, and he then stood upright and contacted Alia.

"…No luck here Alia. I'm sorry…I had no choice but to put Tunnel Rhino down…" X spoke with melancholy in his voice, and Alia let out a grainy sigh through the communicator before remarking to X with _"…You had no choice…Yeah, I get that X. I really wish we could have done something to save Tunnel Rhino, but you can say that about every good Reploid that goes Maverick…All we can really do is try to make their deaths not be in vain, and you can only do that by stopping Doppler and his insanity. I'll bring you back to base, and you can try again with another Reploid…"_ After a few seconds, Alia calls X back to base with a teleporting beam…

But as X was brought back to the Hunter's HQ, he was completely unaware of events unfolding deeper within Doppler Town. Close to the very center of town, the one known as Dr. Doppler was standing in a darkened room, rubbing his metallic chin as he looked at some large and very advanced looking piece of machinery set up in the back of the room. His focus on this was only broken once Bit suddenly appeared in the room behind him, levitating in mid-air as a breeze blows through the room.

"Doctor…I've brought back the intel you wanted me to get on X." Bit said with a modicum of respect towards Doppler, and he suddenly flipped a data disk into his fingers and threw it like a shuriken at the doctor, who suddenly swung his hands out and caught it between his fingers with ease. Grinning out of Bit's line of sight, he remarked happily "Good work. I can see why your skill is recognized within the Reploid underworld…"

Bit folded his arms together and remarked "So what? You're going to use this information to destroy that pest X? What makes you think that you'll succeed when Sigma failed twice?" Doppler glanced over his shoulder and let Bit take a look at the confident grin on his face before he turned his body around and pointed at the side of his head, remarking afterwards "Because…I am intelligent, and X is not. So long as I have you and your brother observe his and Zero's movements, I will be able to perfectly plan out his defeat in due time."

"From what I heard, the X-Hunters bragged the same thing. Whatever…So long as Byte and I get paid at the end of this, I don't care what your plans are for this data. But I do hope you allow me a chance to fight X again." Bit remarked nonchalantly, and Doppler grinned and said "Rest assured, you'll get your chance again later. But for now, I am going to have your brother Byte target Zero."

"Hmph…Fair enough. Of course, if for some reason my brother perishes, it will be on your head, Doppler." Bit said, giving the doctor a firm glare that did not unnerve him in the slightest before he vanished from the room. With that Reploid gone, Doppler closed his eyelids and chuckled at Bit's little threat, and then he lifted his hand up to look at the data chip he got for a few seconds until a voice suddenly called to him from behind with "Hahaha…You really think you can trust those two deadweights to do your job?"

The voice carried a bit of madness to it, and Doppler glanced over his shoulder and noticed the Reploid who spoke to him was sitting atop the machine bathed almost entirely in shadows. "Hehehe…You're quite eager to fight X, aren't you?" Doppler inquired, and the voice replied bluntly with "Of course! I've wanted nothing more than to destroy X ever since you revived me! I'm getting tired of sitting around waiting to deal with him!"

"You should be a little more patient. After all…You're still working on that new Ride Armor of yours, correct?" Doppler pointed out, and the voice told him afterwards "Ha! I could destroy X with just the prototype if you let me have the chance. Of course, I could always just destroy you first and then go after him…"

The figure aimed what appeared to be a rocket launcher attached to his back at Doppler, but Doppler just folded his arms behind his back and remarked "You may be ten times stronger than you were before…But even if I increased your strength another ten times beyond that, you still wouldn't be able to touch me." The figure paused for a moment and then lifted his rocket launcher up, telling Doppler in a jovial tone of voice "Hahaha…It'd be a waste of ammo to destroy you. I'm going to save every last rocket and bullet I have in my body to obliterate X. Consider yourself lucky that I care about nothing more than to destroy X."

"Hehehe…I suppose such motivation is wasted sitting around then. Fine, do what you want now to destroy X. You should know where to find him next." Doppler remarked as he turned himself around, and the figure stood up on the machine and said "Finally, you're saying something sensible. That data you got is useless doctor…Before this hour is over, I'll have scrapped X like he was some common Mechaniloid!"

The figure vanishes from sight, and Doppler raised the data chip in front of his face again and said "Hmmm, I wonder if it was a waste of resources to bring him back. Oh well…If nothing else, he will keep X's attention long enough for me to finish preparations. By the time X and Zero are done destroying all eight Reploids I positioned in the facilities, I will be ready for them here…And then, I will take care of all my loose ends in this world, and bring about a perfect revolution against the humans!" When Doppler finishes his sentence, he grinned as hard as he could, though for a moment, his body quivered in hesitation…

 _Next Time: An Old Friend, an Old Foe…_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Electricity Generator of the Sea, Volt Catfish**

With his mission to Tunnel Rhino's domain out of the way, X returned back to base and quickly repaired himself in one of the functioning capsules before heading back to the central command to check up on his allies. Zero was still standing over at Iris' computer until X entered the room, at which point he lifted his head up and walked over to meet his friend, telling him as the two stopped in place a few feet apart from one another "Sorry you had to do that X. But at least he doesn't have to live the rest of his life as an out of control Maverick…"

X had a melancholic look on his face for a moment, but he did agree with what Zero was saying and remarked "You're right Zero…" Zero then folded his arms together and inquired "You know, I'm curious to know what's up with that Maverick you fought before Tunnel Rhino. Bit was his name, right?"

"What are you thinking about Zero?" X inquired, and Zero looked at X and told him quietly "Think about it for a moment…We only investigated two facilities before Bit showed up. That didn't take us that long to do since we're splitting up to cover more ground, so don't you think that was too quick of a response from Dr. Doppler to send that Maverick to spy on you?"

X widened his eyes slightly and then grasped his chin, stating to Zero after giving that a moment of thought "You're right Zero…It's like Doppler knew we were going to investigate the facilities of his that aren't covered under the diplomatic immunity agreement. Are we just falling for whatever plans he has?" Zero closed his eyelids and commented "Maybe. It's entirely possible that Doppler had the Mavericks that attacked this place bug this room in particular."

"But if that was the case, he would've sent Bit after me when I was going after Blizzard Buffalo…" X pointed out, and Zero opened his eyelids back up and said "You got a point there X. I guess it's just easy to assume that we'd figure out how to bypass his diplomatic immunity to investigate whatever it is he's doing in his town…He had a few hours after the attack on our HQ to hire Bit to help him out, after all."

"Then all we can do is continue to keep checking out the other facilities, and hoping we can find a chip within the bodies of the other Reploids so we can connect Doppler to all that's been going recently." X stated, and Zero only had to nod his head in agreement of the idea before gesturing a hand out and telling X "I'll head off to another facility in a moment. There's a couple things I have to think about real quick."

"Alright. I'll see you later then Zero." X remarked before walking over to where Alia was, and Zero simply pondered what was going on with Doppler and the Maverick he had hired for a few seconds before saying to himself "…I get the feeling that Bit wasn't the only Maverick Doppler has hired. I should be careful wherever I go next…"

X approached Alia from behind and asked her "So what place should I check out next?" Alia popped up the computer screen and looked over it for a bit before stating "You might want to try checking out the power plant." X looked at the location in question and the Maverick who was running the power planet, and all of a sudden his expression became one of bitter concern.

"…Volt Catfish…" X said the name of the Maverick in question without Alia having to even consider doing so, and Alia put on a melancholic expression before remarking "…You're familiar with him, aren't you?" X nodded his head and then explained "Volt Catfish is a friend of mine. He has a powerful generator on his back that allows him to provide energy to even the largest cities whenever blackouts happened. I-I tried to stop him from going to Doppler Town, warning him that Doppler might not be trustworthy, but he said that it was a great opportunity for him to do something to help bring peace between Reploids and humans by powering the city that would act as a sanctuary for Reploids who feared that they may become Mavericks…"

"…Then that could only mean that Doppler might now be using him to power his facilities, which means he can continue whatever plans he has in mind without ever worrying about running out of power." Alia commented on, and X grit his teeth and remarked "There's no way I'm going to let Doppler get away with using a friend of mine as a tool! Alia, set up the teleporter…I'm going in." Alia did not waste any time in letting the determined X get a move on with his mission, and she set up the device with the proper coordinates as X turned around and ran to that room to get sent off to the power planet that Volt Catfish was occupying.

X is dropped down into a narrow corridor that lies so high up in the power plant that if one looked out the thin windows nearby they'd see an abundant number of clouds. There was a bit of pressure X had to adjust to because of that, but once he did so he took a look around and saw a few machines strapped between the floor and the ceiling by plenty of wires, all of them surging electricity throughout the facility and causing the lights to flash on and off rapidly.

X did not need to hear any information on Volt Catfish since he was familiar with her, and he was just about ready to move on ahead when all of a sudden Alia contacted him and remarked bluntly _"Hold on a minute X! You should know that there is another capsule in this area. It resides close to the very top of the power plant, so keep an eye out for it."_ "Another capsule? …Hmmm, I guess it's happening so quickly because I'm not covering as much ground as I did the last two times thanks to Zero's help." X commented in a bit of a surprised but appreciative tone.

With that information in mind and a thanks directed towards Alia, X began to sprint on ahead to take care of business. He runs into an obvious turret attached to the ceiling and paused for a moment as the barrel glowed, realizing that it would fire upon him if he went underneath it. He waited for the moment when that would happen, but instead was caught by surprise when it unleashed a stream of light orbs diagonally at him, forcing X to leap back as it singed his feet slightly.

X then aimed his arm cannon upward and tried to fire at the turret with simple buster shots, but the turret quickly retracted itself into the ceiling to avoid the attacks. X took advantage of that to run underneath it while continuing to shoot at the turret's location to prevent it from coming out and attack him again. By the time X ran underneath the turret however, another one fired upon him while hidden behind the lip of a lowered ceiling, and with a quick strike on his body X was pushed back and some burns were placed on the chest of his armor.

X looked a bit annoyed at the turrets and then used the same method as before of shooting at it with small buster shots while running past it, and he leaped up to another ledge and moved on past those turrets for the time being. The windows were hidden away by walls of circuitry that spread electricity throughout the building, and as much as X wished to attack the walls to disrupt the flow of electricity he knew that one mistake could cause a chain reaction that could destroy the building.

X encountered another obstacle in the form of a ceiling crawling Mechaniloid with two small turrets on it's head that fired alternatively, but since the turrets could not move directly to the top of the machine X just hand to stand below it and shoot a charged shot upward to obliterate it entirely. He then moved onward even further without hesitation, encountering a two-legged Mechaniloid with two turrets on it's head that allowed it to fire missiles at X.

Swerving to the right to avoid the first missile, X grabbed his elbow and began charging the arm cannon, and then turned his back so the next missile would just barely graze him as he turned his body around and then fired a charged shot to obliterate the Mechaniloid in one quick instant. In front of X afterwards was a platform that seemed a bit familiar, with it having a green press-down button on top that would allow it to change the direction it moved at.

However, X suspected that going down would lead him nowhere, especially since Alia said the capsule was higher up, so he promptly ignored the platform with a quick leap over it and went on his way forward. The wall gave way to more windows, and now there were a couple more of those ceiling crawling Mechaniloids near some of those electric carrying machines. X chose to ignore them by dashing past and underneath their shots, and ended up finding another one of those switch platforms. This time he stepped on it and caused it to start rising upwards, and he prepared his arm cannon for whatever enemies might stop his ascent. He switched to Blizzard Buffalo's colors, since the protective nature of the Frost Shield meant projectiles wouldn't hit him from the front.

Sure enough, a couple more of those bipedal Mechaniloids showed up on ledges to try and snipe X with missiles, but X simply responded to the efforts by using his arm cannon to launch one of those Frost Shields and have it block the missiles and the ensuing explosion before it flew forward and grinded right through the front of the Mechaniloids in his way. Once at the top of the elevator, X leaped off it and saw another one of those ceiling turrets, but this time he fired off a Frost Shield just high enough that it would block the attack from the turret as X slid underneath it.

After getting past the turret, X leaped up onto the Frost Shield missile due to the more open nature of the passage and weighed it down so it descend towards one of those bipedal Mechaniloids he had been running into a lot so far. Once he was sure the Mechaniloid would be destroyed, X leaped over the Frost Shield and charged his arm cannon, firing a normal charged shot down at the second of the Mechaniloids in his way to destroy it, with the missile it fired out helping a lot in it's end.

After that, X went unimpeded in his ascension via wall jumps at the area up ahead, allowing him to reach a small passage to the next area where all he had to do was destroy one of those ceiling crawlers to open the way forward. He found another of those button platforms and stepped down on it, allowing him to rise up to the next part of the power plant. The walls were lined with electrified thorns, but there were no enemies in his way so X just kept the obstacle in mind for later as he leaped off to the next passage.

In this passage there was a heavier electric generator and a lot more Mechaniloids in the way, with some new turrets emerging from the ceiling to release a large electric orb to the ground to try and hit X. X bobbed and weaved through enemy fire, ignoring the turrets as he switched to Toxic Seahorse's colors and fired Acid Bursts to burn through the Mechaniloids in his way, making it to the other side in ten seconds and quickly climbing up the nearby walls to make it to another short passage leading to yet another one of those lift.

But when X stepped onto that lift, his helmet suddenly went off, revealing on his visor that a Dr. Light capsule was close by. Surprised by the sudden notification, X nevertheless decided to keep it on his line of sight so he'd know just how much farther he'd need to go in order to reach the capsule. X waited until the lift began to reach the very top, where it refused to stop despite the ceiling of electrified thorns, so X leaped off to the left and saw that he was very close to the capsule.

However, an obstacle in the form of two walls filled with more of those pesky thorns was in X's way, and there was not a lift in sight that could help him ascend. It wasn't a very large shaft that X would have to ascend, so as he stood atop a small generator he got an idea in his mind on how to bypass the walls entirely. It would require quick reflexes on his part, but he wasn't going to back down on this plan. First he switched to Blizzard Buffalo's colors and fired a Frost Shield up into the left wall, and as the missile grinded down X leaped on top of and charged up energy in his arm cannons.

Once he was ready, X leaped off the Frost Shield and fired one charged shot after the other to launch himself higher up, followed by using his Air Dash boots to push himself diagonally onto the ledge at the very top, and he didn't even need to turn around to confirm what was here. He heard the capsule open up, and the engines of the machine whirring as Dr. Light's hologram is brought into existence once more. X turned around after that to look directly at it, where Dr. Light looked rather surprised to see X again so soon, remarking something along the lines of _"You found yet another one of these capsules. I must admit, I wasn't expecting you to see you again so soon."_

"I could say the same Dr. Light. But me and Zero are covering different facilities in our investigation, so things are going by a little faster than usual…Huh, now that I think about it, I wonder how we would've handled things if Zero had ran into one of your capsules…" X remarked with a curious expression on his face, leading to Dr. Light rubbing his holographic chin and remarking _"Hmmm, I never considered that before. I suppose I will have to modify my capsule at some point so your friend can use the capsule and then transfer the armor data to you so you can acquire the parts without having to waste time returning to a place that's already been dealt with."_

X widened his eyes happily and said in an appreciative tone "If you can do that, I'd really appreciate that Dr. Light." Dr. Light happily told X _"Of course. I will not leave your side X…If you need my help, I'll make sure to be there for you, even if my means of helping you are limited by my lack of a physical body. Now then…This capsule contains the Body Parts. With these parts, your defenses will increase, and whenever you get hit your body will generate a temporary shield that will protect you even further. Use this to protect yourself from even the toughest of foes…But don't get too overconfident with it's usage X. After all…It is only a temporary shield."_

Dr. Light then disappeared for a moment, allowing X to leap into the capsule and take the armor part and place it onto his body with ease. By the time Dr. Light's usual process of placing the armor onto him was done, X emerged from the capsule wearing a sleek white chest plate with a green glass circle on the center of it, a couple of broad shoulder plates with bright orange lights close to his neck, and he had some white and orange armor acting as protection around his waist. All that remained now was the Buster Part…

X turned around as the hologram of Dr. Light appeared, and with a proud smile the doctor said _"It must have taken some clever thinking to get here when you did X…Therefore, I have plenty of faith that you will use your new parts to your advantage. I shall see you again soon X, and good luck…"_ Dr. Light then vanished and the capsule shut down, allowing X to turn around and leap off of the side of the ledge and continue back on his way. He jumped down the large shaft where the lift was destroyed earlier and landed on a ledge to the right of it, allowing him to move forward to the next part of the power plant.

He took a brief detour outside of this current building to cross a bridge over to the next one, keeping a steady footing on the steel flooring due to the heavy breeze passing by. X fired upon the Mechaniloids in his path and eventually made his way to the other side, and after going through a secluded room past a pair of steel doors X ends up going into a different part of the power plant. This building had different aesthetics than the one before, with hundreds upon hundreds of pipes surging electricity through plenty of generators, making it quite clear that Volt Catfish was somewhere within this building.

With the ceiling covered by iron wire blocks, X knew the way he'd have to go was downward. After leaping on top of an orange electricity silo that whirred heavily with noise and energy, X pressed on ahead, finding those Mechaniloids that once crawled on the ceiling were now patrolling the floors as well. X took them out before moving on the edge of the silo, where he paused for a moment and noticed that there were some stray wires carrying electricity through themselves at certain intervals.

Since no enemies were in his way, X waited and paid attention to the timing of the electricity, and once he was certain of things he leaped down the shaft past the electricity so he could move on to the next floor of the power planet. Down here some more of the Mechaniloids were ready to get in his way, but X switched to Toxic Seahorse's colors and used the Acid Burst to burn through whatever got in his way, and he climbed up the sides of some of these silos with wall jumps a moment afterward he was done bypassing his foes.

He then ran forward until he came across one of those turrets that were giving him so much trouble at the beginning. Instead of using his buster to force it to retract into the ceiling, X instead used the newest armor part he acquired to his advantage, making it so once he ran underneath the beam of light fired his way the blue energy shield would pop up around him and absorb the attack, allowing X to keep going down further into the power planet. The resistance became even greater at this point, with bipedal spiked Mechaniloids patrolling the walls and firing electric shots at X.

X knew that Dr. Doppler must really value this power plant if he was putting up this much defense to impede X's progress, but the Hunter was not going to stop his charge, and he used whatever he had available to take down what got in his way. Before the shield around him faded away, X used Acid Burst to take down the enemies on the walls and landed on the ground, and he moved down through the next few floors with relative ease due to how close the gaps were in the floor. Alternating between electric wires, Mechaniloids and turrets, X had quite a number of obstacles to go through, but he barely felt threatened by them now that he knew how all of them operated.

He took just a couple scratches along the way, thanks mostly in part to the shield he had gotten from the newest armor part, and after about a minute of running rampant through the power plant X finally made it to the steel doors before Volt Catfish's chamber, and once he passed through the small passage he was now stuck in a secluded room where there was a wall that was clearly sending energy throughout the entire building, possibly throughout the rest of Doppler Town as well.

And the one who was responsible for keeping the power plant running was an average-sized hunched over Reploid with a clear fish-like design consisting of a long eel-like tail with a shell shaped fin at the end, a body shaped like that of a heavy catfish, webbed hands, and wires acting as their whiskers. There was a large electric generator on their back, and one of the whiskers attached to it and allowed the Reploid to connect the other three to the device on the wall in order to keep the power plant going.

But when X had entered the room, the Reploid stopped what they were doing and pulled the whiskers from the wall, slowly turning themselves around while wiggling his whiskers around, remarking with a bubbling sounding voice as he looked at X with his half-shut eyes "X…What are you doing here?" His tone was polite sounding, though he was still confused by X's presence here. X put away his arm cannon for the moment and gestured the hand out, asking him quietly "I'm here to check up on you. Are you enjoying yourself here, Volt Catfish?"

"Of course. I'm quite SHOCKED to hear you ask that. Hehehe…" The Reploid make a very obvious joke and laid a hand against his wide lips while he laughed, and X seemed convinced that his friend was ok because of the joke he made, and after a sigh of relief he said "I'm glad to hear that." Volt Catfish then lifted his head up a little and remarked "But surely there is another reason you decided to ZAP on by here X."

"Huh? Well yeah…I was worried for a moment that maybe Doppler was using you for some nefarious purpose, or that perhaps he had turned you into a Maverick." X explained, deciding not to be secretive with his friend for the sake of fairness, and Volt Catfish responded with a shocked look in his eyes before he said "Oh come on X, you got to stop being so suspicious of Doppler's idea here. He's given a lot of average joes like me a chance to do something greater with our lives. And immunity to becoming Maverick? Well that's just a greater bonus."

"I don't think there's anything wrong with the idea, really…But I just don't trust the person in question. I'm only being cautious because I'd hate to lose another one of my friends because they went Maverick." X voiced his concerns for his friend with melancholic remembrance towards Storm Eagle in particular, and Volt Catfish responded by lowering his head slightly and stating "Oh don't be such a negative ion X. Besides…"

Volt Catfish gave X a wide grin and told him "Maybe you are a Maverick, X." X slanted his eyebrows a bit and glared at his friend, questioning just why he would ask that by inquiring "Why would you say something like that?" Volt Catfish's attitude became a little more serious as he said "Think about it. A Maverick is classified as someone that is a threat to humanity and innocent Reploids…Who else could possibly be a bigger threat than you, X?"

Volt Catfish gestured a hand out and explained his logic, telling X bluntly "After all, who else has stopped two major Maverick threats by himself? Who killed Sigma twice? Who defeated all of the X-Hunters without taking a scratch? Your strength is constantly increasing X, and thus your threat level towards humanity also becomes greater. Who could possibly stop someone like you? You're humanity's biggest threat, X." X clenched his right fist and exclaimed with a scowl on his face "I fight to protect humanity and the innocent Reploids out there! I would never betray them!"

"Never? Hahahah…I'm sure when the Mavericks first started showing up, everybody said that Sigma wouldn't betray them…And yet look what happened. Are you really so arrogant that you think you're the perfect little flower amongst all of the Reploids in the world that is immune to turning Maverick?" Volt Catfish remarked, holding nothing back in his words much to X's annoyance. X didn't respond to the claims this time, exclaiming to his friend in a bitter rage "Cut this out! This isn't like you at all!"

"Oh poor X…You're so naïve! This is what I was always going to be! A superior Reploid, one beyond all humans!" Volt Catfish exclaimed, his whiskers surging with electricity while X furiously yelled out "Doppler! I know you're listening! Stop controlling my friend and show yourself!" "Hahahaha! You're going to be all alone with that paranoid mentality X! But it's ok…I can end your behavior along with your life if you so want!"

X, knowing that he had no other choice but to fight now, raised his arm cannon at his friend as their body surged with electricity, and Volt Catfish caused the room to flash rapidly for a few seconds with the amount of power he was releasing into the room, and with his right pointer finger brandished at X the newly turned Maverick exclaimed "I'll put a shock to your systems, X!" The battle had now begun, and X started things off by charging up his energy and firing it at his friend.

Volt Catfish raised his whiskers up and charged them with electricity, swiping them through the charged shot to prevent it from hitting him, followed by him leaping forward like a frog to try and strike X with his full weight. X slid underneath his friend and kicked himself up, turning around and aiming his charged shot at his friend's back, only for Volt Catfish to respond by punching the ground and sending electricity out in a shockwave that strikes X and sends voltage through his body powerful enough to disrupt his concentration. The more surprising thing though is that the shield did not come up to defend X.

X theorized that the shield either couldn't work in conjunction with his charged shot, or that electricity was the one thing that could bypass it. Either way, he leaped over the next shockwave Volt Catfish made with his fist after he turned himself around with a solid leap of his own, making it so X then had to respond by switching to Blizzard Buffalo's colors and firing off a Frost Shield to try and harm the Maverick that way.

But Volt Catfish swung his hands out and made a lightning bolt strike him from an outlet on the ceiling, creating a powerful electric shield around his body that made him immune to all damage from the Frost Shield, even as it grinded away at the barrier. But X didn't waste time just letting that happen and did nothing else, as he switched to his normal colors and prepared another charged shot, firing it through the Frost Shield and blowing the electric shield right off the Maverick's body. Volt Catfish widened his eyes in surprise at that, allowing X enough time to sprint forward and throw as hard of a punch as he could into the bottom of the Maverick's jaw, denting it and knocking him back first against the wall, which shattered the glass light on his head before he dropped back down onto the ground.

X leaped back before he fell, then took his arm cannon and switched to Toxic Seahorse's colors, firing off an Acid Burst meant to deal with the whiskers and lower Volt Catfish's energy output. However, Volt Catfish ruffled his lips in an irritated manner and then thrust his hands out, discharging a large quantity of electricity in a wave around his body to turn the acid bubbles into smoke and strike X at the exact same time, pushing him back while making his body tingle a little from the electricity.

X tried to scan Volt Catfish to learn what his weakness was, but the Maverick threw an electric orb at him from across the ground, forcing him to break his concentration and leap over it, swerving his body around in mid-air as well as he could to avoid the ones being thrown his way afterwards. Once X was on the ground, Volt Catfish leaped at him while covering his underside in electricity for a more powerful slam, only for X to respond by leaping back onto the wall and letting the Maverick unleash the electricity as hard as he could across the floor.

The room trembled, but X kept to the wall and quickly scanned the Maverick for his weakness. As it turned out, he was weak to Tunnel Rhino's weapon, and as such X quickly switched to that Maverick's colors and leaped off the wall, positioning himself behind Volt Catfish and flipping his body around to aim at his electricity generator while skidding a bit across the ground. Volt Catfish then turned around and raised his arms up, gathering electricity in them to unleash a barrage of electric spheres at X.

X fired off a drill shaped missile Tunnel Rhino granted him from his arm cannon, and watched as it spun it's way forward, drilling apart every electric sphere while Volt Catfish summoned forth a protective barrier of electricity once more. But the drill dug it's way through the barrier without stalling even once, and by the time Volt Catfish realized this it was already too late for him. He swung his body to the left to try and get out of the way, but this just put his generator in the path of the drill, and in a few swift seconds the drill pierced the generator entirely.

It's no surprise that it malfunctioned afterwards, sending electricity hurtling through Volt Catfish's body without anything available to contain it. Volt Catfish gargled with agony in his voice as his whiskers short-circuited and exploded one segment at a time against his face, and his arms burst open at the metallic joints along with his legs. Finally, it all ended when Volt Catfish's lower mouth bloated outward, exploding in a sudden burst of heavy electricity that sent X flying back in recoil until he slammed against the wall behind him and let out a grunt of pain.

X still stood upright after that though, but he had nothing but a look of pure regret on his face upon looking at his friend's smoking, devastated body. It would be a miracle if he could even say anything after the damage brought upon him, but it was the only thing X could do to stop him from being a Maverick. X returned to his normal colors and remarked "Volt Catfish…I-I'm so sorry…" His voice dripped with regret, and he began to walk over to try and see if there would be any reaction from his friend.

Volt Catfish raised his right hand out, and wished for nothing more than to say anything to his friend to ensure that he had even a tiny spark of left within his mechanical body. But fate had already conspired to not even allow that little bit of reassurance happen for X, as all of a sudden a missile blazed down from the right and crashed into Volt Catfish's body, causing an explosion big enough to rip apart his body the rest of the way, spreading the debris of his remains across the room with enough force to rip cuts into X's armor as he stood there taken aback by what just happened.

However, things only got worse as in the middle of the flames created by the explosion a figure slowly began to emerge, echoing out a familiar and maniacal laugh that made X simply freeze in place as the shadow of the figure appeared within the flames. "Hahaha…Look at you cowering in fear X. You should have known that I would come back to try and destroy you again!" As a single frightening red light flashes from the shadowy part of the being's helmet to signify their right eye, X stuttered out in a tone of shock "V-Vile?"

As impossible as it was, it was indeed Vile who was emerging from the flames of Volt Catfish's demise. But he looked much different than he did when X last saw him. His colors had become that of a darker blue-purple, his boots had become heavier to signify their increased toughness and they both had red painted spikes on the back of the legs. His right shoulder had a highly advanced beige laser turret mounted on it, and this time it did not require any ammunition to be fed into it. On the left shoulder was a small mounted missile launcher, and on his back was a shield half the size of his body that had a thick, curved "V" shaped to it. Finally, on his helmet was a symbol of Doppler that had a slanted yellow "V" painted over it.

Vile stepped out of the flames with an odd chip gripped between his right fingers, and after getting over his initial fears X aimed his arm cannon at the revived Vile and exclaimed "How are you still alive?!" Vile reeled his head back a little and laughed again, stating bluntly to X "I can never die X! My grudge against you will bring me back from the dead as many times as it takes!"

"Grrr…This is Doppler's doing, isn't it?" X inquired, not falling for Vile's false claims regardless of how bombastically he said it. Vile lowered his head a little and scowled, telling X bluntly afterwards "Who cares about that nut job doctor?! This is between you and me X! What, do I have to force you to focus on fighting me?!"

X happened to glance at the chip Vile was grasping in his hand, and Vile took notice of this with ease and glanced towards it before remarking with a chilling laugh "Hahaha…I get it now. You want this chip, don't you? I know what's going on here X…If you take this chip back with you to your stupid HQ, you think it'll allow you to attack that doctor directly, is that it? Well guess what?" Without hesitation, Vile crushed the chip in his hand, X's wide eyed expression bringing delight to Vile's deranged mind as he lets the bits fall to the ground and holds his hands out to further enjoy his laughter.

"Now you'll have to just keep searching X! Hahahaha! But don't worry, I can end your stupid search right now if you want!" Vile exclaimed, becoming even more insane in the way he spoke as he mounted his shoulder cannon and aimed it right at X. X was all too prepared to dodge whatever attack was coming his way, but then Vile retracted his arm cannon and said "Actually, I'm not stupid. As fun as it would be to destroy you with my bare hands, I want you to remember the agonizing futility of trying to best one of my Ride Armors."

Vile brandishes his right pointer finger out and exclaimed "X! There's a capsule in Neon Tiger's domain that will allow you to teleport to my Ride Armor laboratory! If you don't come and find me, I will obliterate the rest of Doppler's Mavericks and prevent you from finding any of his chips! So come on X!" Vile crossed a finger in front of his throat and stated bluntly "I'll burn you to the ground and leave nothing left for ANYONE to rebuild you with! Hahahaha…HAHAHAHAH!"

Vile then activated his jetpack and flew straight out of sight quickly, leaving X with a bitter look on his face and anger directed towards the fact that he could've quickly avenged Volt Catfish's unfortunate demise by collecting the chip had it not been for Vile. "Fine Vile…If you want a fight, then I'll give you one again! You'll pay for what you've done here, Vile!" X vowed as loud as he could while he picked up one of Volt Catfish's parts, absorbing his power into his body to gain a mint-green and violet armor coloring. Once Alia brought him back to base, he would waste no time in going after Vile…

 _Next Time: Morality and Insanity_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Morally Confused Crustacean, Crush Crawfish**

Not long after X left for Volt Catfish's domain, Zero finally decided that he would take care of business of his own at a separate facility. Turning around at the command center, he walked over to Iris and she happily asks him "Are you ready to go Zero?" Zero nodded his head politely and told her while keeping his arms folded against his chest "Yeah. No need to watch what X is up to now, I think I got an idea of what's going on here."

"Well, there's four other facilities you can check out. Of the four of them, I think you should check out Crush Crawfish's facility. It's a shipyard near the coastline of Doppler Town, and there's quite a number of boats and submarines there…" Iris commented on, pointing at the mugshot of said Maverick, causing Zero to focus on it and remark "Crush Crawfish? I feel like I've heard of him somewhere before…"

"He's a very different kind of Maverick…He doesn't discern either friend or foe, and there's been reports of him killing both Reploids AND other Mavericks. I don't know why Doppler would have a Maverick like him in his town…" Iris remarked, sounding rather bothered by the existence of Crush Crawfish, and Zero glared a bit forward and told Iris "You know, it's not that uncommon for there to be Mavericks out there who kill other Mavericks. Ever hear of a former Maverick Hunter named Vile?"

Iris glanced over her shoulder and remarked "Yeah, why do you ask Zero?" Zero put on a bit of a laid-back expression as he extended his right arm out and explained "Vile was a kind of Maverick that would attack everyone but himself, though he had a very specific grudge against X. It's any wonder Sigma allowed someone as insane as him to take part in his rebellion…But as a former A-Rank Hunter, he was no slouch either. The only reason X was able to take him down was because I took my own life to destroy his Ride Armor."

"O-oh…" Iris remarked in a melancholic tone before glancing away from Zero, and Zero quickly changed the subject by pointing out "What I'm trying to say here is that I'm used to dealing with crazy Mavericks like Crush Crawfish. Honestly, I won't find a chip from this Maverick from the sounds of things, but the thought of there being a fleet of aquatic vehicles in Doppler Town bothers me. I'll investigate the area, take down the ships if I can, and stop Crush Crawfish."

"A-Alright then. I'll set up the coordinates for you Zero." Iris said, focusing her attention back onto the computer as she typed things up for Zero to be able to head over to Crush Crawfish's domain. Zero nodded his head and said in an appreciative tone "Thanks a lot. I'll head out right away. Oh, and Alia, if X comes across anything important for me to know relay the information to Iris." Alia nodded her head in response, and Zero made his way for the teleportation capsule so he could head to the coastal harbor.

A quick jump through time and space brought Zero down on a surprising location within the harbor, placing him atop a large crane suspended high atop a building under construction. The cool sea breeze blew on by Zero's face as he ran to the end of the crane and looked out towards the harbor. There was a very large building with Doppler's insignia marked on the front of it, and with the fact that it was submerged in the water quite a bit gave Zero the hint that the submarines were there.

Zero observed his surroundings some more, and found that there were a ton more cranes carrying oil barrels onto the boats docked around at the harbor, with hundreds of Mechaniloids spread out to handle other tasks. Zero remarked to himself after a few seconds of observation "So this must be where Doppler sends out supply ships for the other parts of his town. So the ships are probably harmless…But what about those submarines?" Zero looked at the large building in front of him and then casually drew his sword, ready to head into battle.

But before he moved on, he suddenly received a message from Iris, who said to him with a bit of nervousness in her voice _"Ummm…Zero? Can I talk to you for a moment about something that's bothering me?"_ Zero was surprised by the sudden call from Iris, but he was perfectly fine with answering her request after he stepped back a little on the crane and sheathed his Z-Saber, saying to Iris as he laid a hand on his helmet "What's up Iris?"

" _I-I know this is unprofessional of me to interrupt a mission, and I'm sorry ahead of time…"_ Iris apologized for what she was doing ahead of time, but Zero closed his eyelids and told her "Don't worry about it at all. If it'll help you focus on being a navigator, then just say what you need to and I'll try and help you out Iris. We're a team, after all."

"… _Ok then. Ummm…Zero, why do you think Mavericks like Vile and Crush Crawfish exist? What happened to make them different than all other kinds of Mavericks?"_ Iris inquired, and Zero paused for a moment to think about that before stating to his navigator calmly "It could be many things. Faultily built, bad programming, a malfunction that no one could have predicted…Personally, I think someone like Vile had a sick mind from the start and nothing more."

"… _I know every Hunter and every member of Repliforce does their part to stop the Mavericks, but it feels sometimes like we're just stalling an inevitable calamity. Humans and Reploids have a strained relationship, and nothing seems to be done to make things better. I wish we could save Mavericks, I wish we didn't have to fight, I wish Reploids and humans could just live together in peace…"_ Iris stated her views on the world as is, making Zero contemplate the matter for a bit with a slight hum in his voice as he did so.

"Mavericks are the big problem when it comes down to it Iris…Humans can't trust Reploids so long as Mavericks are always a possibility. Once we stop the Mavericks for good, paranoia should go away over time. We're constantly making steps towards peace Iris." Zero tried to offer some reassurance towards Iris, but she said to him quietly _"…But Zero, what if the Mavericks can't be stopped?"_

"That's never going to happen. X will never let the Maverick threat get that out of hand. 'Quitting' was not programmed to be a part of his dictionary, you come to learn that after working with him for a while." Zero remarked, and Iris said to him in turn _"But what about you Zero? You're just as important as X is…"_

"No I'm not. We're partners, we help each other out, but X is a much better Hunter than I am…I can admit that, especially after I died. I'll keep helping X out, as will Alia, Signas, and in time even you Iris. We'll make it through this, ok?" Zero stated, and Iris sounded a bit more confident about the whole ordeal as she told Zero happily _"O-Ok! I'll believe in you Zero…You and X both will stop the Mavericks for good."_

"Thanks for the talk though Iris, you have me something to think about as well…" Zero remarked quietly, followed by him turning around and walking to the edge of the crane while pulling out his Z-Saber again and looking out towards the sea, thinking to himself as he saw all that was before him _"A world where Reploids and humans can live in peace, huh? …I wonder if such a thing really is possible."_

Zero then leaped off the crane and crossed over to another one, slashing down a propeller drone that was in his way with a diagonal cut. This alerted some more drones to Zero's presence in the area as he landed on another crane, and they made the wise decision to stay as high up into the air as they could while they spray Zero with bullets from the turrets on their mouths. Zero takes some chip damage across his armor as he turns himself around and spins his blade in front of him to deflect the remaining bullets while he moves backwards.

Zero leaps off the crane he was on and felt himself bumping up against a Mechaniloid with those turrets on it, but with a swift turn around and a one-handed grip on his sword Zero cut down the Mechaniloid and then dashed through the area for a little bit before jumping up onto a steel girder close to the side of the building. Zero had to pause for a moment upon seeing that it was a long drop down to the bottom floor, but his concentration was interrupted when a new type of Mechaniloid dropped down from above and landed atop the girder.

This Mechaniloid had a thick rounded red body and two buff shoulders that contained spiked balls. It had a drill for a nose and a furious look in it's eyes, and Zero knew that it had to be one of Doppler's big guns just from how strong it's appearance looked. Remaining cautious, Zero waited for the Mechaniloid to launch one of it's spiked balls from it's shoulder before swerving out of the way of it and preparing to run forward. But the Mechaniloid quickly retracts the spiked ball and prevented Zero from getting in close for the moment.

But as Zero pulled back and waited for his next move, but before either he or the Mechaniloid could do anything further a slight cracking sound could be heard coming from below their feet. Zero looked down and saw cracks in the girder beginning to form from the weight of the Mechaniloid, and as Zero quickly ducked to the right to dodge another thrust of one of the spiked balls at him the girder cracked apart just enough to make it collapsed underneath their feet.

Zero and the Mechaniloid are sent falling down to another girder, with the Mechaniloid dropping faster due to it's heavier weight. It therefore crashed through the next few girders quickly, but all the while it turned itself around to aim it's spiked balls at Zero, firing multiple times back and forth from the shoulders while Zero swung his sword around to repel them, since in this position he couldn't move closer to the Mechaniloid.

That is, until Zero got a bold idea, and he waited for the Mechaniloid to fire off his left spiked ball before he grabbed onto the chain and letting himself get pulled closer, and he pulled his right arm closer to his body as the Mechaniloid fired off the second spiked ball to try and hit him. Zero let go of the chain and then let the momentum carry the strength of his Z-Saber swing, which allows him to cleave right through the Mechaniloid sideways and then stick himself to the side of the building with one hand.

The Mechaniloid split apart for only a few seconds before exploding violently, and Zero raised his right arm up to protect himself from some of the debris while he slowly slid down towards the ground. Once Zero was on the ground, he glanced over his shoulder and saw that he was at the entrance to the building he wanted to infiltrate, and with a swing of his sword outward as he turns around he took a cautionary glance before moving onward again.

" _Doppler is bring out the big guns…He's worried about us finding something now, he has to be."_ Zero thought to himself as he leaped over a small pit, leaping over a couple of small columns and another pit before having to cross through a secluded room past some steel doors. There was no resist for a little while past that until Zero went up a couple steps and came across a bipedal Mechaniloid with a screwdriver for a head. It bent back to try and avoid Zero, but he landed on the ground and brought his sword down to cut it in half.

The two halves split left and right and explode after Zero passed them by, and not long after that Zero leaps far off the edge of the girder and cuts down another one of those Mechaniloids in the very same manner as before. Zero noted that the defenses inside the base were not as strong as those outside, meaning that either Doppler had not properly planned for Zero to make it this far, or that there was something much stronger waiting deeper down to owe up for the lack of numbers.

Zero climbs down the ladder and ends up going into the underground area of this building, finding a few robotic crabs crawling across the walls while aiming electrified claws at where Zero was, firing purple electric balls his way and forcing him to cut them down with his Z-Saber as swiftly as he could. He then dashes forward and spun himself around to cut down a few of the crabs, then he leaped off the ledge ahead of him and slashed downward to take down one more crab. As he lands on the ground, one of those screwdriver Mechaniloids fired upon him.

However, Zero turned a bit to the right and threw his Z-Saber behind him, cutting through the laser shot and stabbing the head of the Mechaniloid in one fell swoop, pinning his defeated foe's body against the wall. Zero waited for the Mechaniloid to explode before he ran over and picked his sword back up after it was blown onto the ground, then he turned around and quickly made his way to the ladder, climbing it down and finally ending up at the location that he wanted to reach.

Zero was now inside the submarine docking bay, and there were quite a number of very, very large grey steel submarines half submerged within the water. These submarines were capable of carrying many missiles, and were so heavily armored that it would taking piercing ammunition rounds or heavy explosives to breech the hull. Zero paused for a moment and contacted Iris, telling her quietly as to not arouse suspicion "Iris, I've found the submarines. There's enough here to launch an assault on any underwater facility if Doppler wanted to…"

" _He could also be using them for self-defenses…But the missiles really seem powerful for something as simple as that. I think you should investigate the closest submarine or destroy it…Your choice Zero, but I get the feeling that Crush Crawfish is close by."_ After Iris' advice on the matter, Zero nodded his head and quietly remarked "Yeah…I think that's a safe bet. Alright, I'll try and take one of the submarines down. That way it will weaken Doppler's defenses if nothing else."

Zero bravely leaped out to the closest submarine in the area and landed on top of it, where he found a couple of those heavily armored Mechaniloids that ambushed him earlier guarding it. "That's what I was expecting…" Zero remarked before charging forward. With the environment not forcing him to drop through the air, Zero was able to use his maneuverability to his advantage this time around to get around the spiked balls thrown his way and slice through the Mechaniloids, only having to duck once he took down the first one with a solid slash of his sword.

After both Mechaniloids were out of the way, Zero held the sword out beside him and sprinted forward again, making it to a hatch on the back of the submarine that he is able to bypass by ripping it right off while grabbing onto it's handle. Zero then tosses the hatch aside and leaps down into the submarine, finding himself close to the edge of an active conveyor belt. There's a few drones flying around, and there were a few active reactors to the left and right of Zero's present location.

Zero didn't waste time examining the scenery, and after sprinting across the first conveyor belt he leaped forward and cut down a couple drones with a horizontal spinning slash. He lands on another conveyor belt and ran forward, dropping down and evading the fire coming from other Mechaniloids as he makes his way for the steel doors at the end. Upon making it through the doors, the ammunition blows up against it and some smoke makes it's way through the sides of the doors.

Zero then turns around and finds himself face to face with a large cylindrical generator that made the submarine vibrate every time it sent energy throughout the submarine. Zero switched his Z-Saber over to his left hand and then raised his arm cannon up, charging it up and aiming it straight at the center of the generator, and without hesitation he fired a fully powered shot at the generator. The attack struck the front of it and set off a large explosion almost instantly, but the explosion did not reach Zero due to how far back he was in the room.

However, by destroying the generator, Zero causes the submarine to start tilting immediately, as nothing was allowing it to sustain floatation in the water. As the submarine slants downward from the front, Zero activates the magnetism on his boots and stabs his Z-Saber into the ground to keep himself steadily in place, bracing himself for the moment as the submarine plunges into the water and crashes nose first against the shallow seafloor. The submarine rumbles, but Zero is able to keep himself stuck to what was now the wall.

Once Zero sensed that the submarine wasn't going to budge anymore, he pulls his sword from the wall and flipped back, landing on the new ground of the room and looking up past the fried center of the generator he destroyed, remarking before he made his next move "I guess I should just keep going up to get out of here." With the doors being him sealed up, Zero was forced to wall jump his way past the broken generator, landing on the left side of it and looking up to see that it wasn't very long to the top, but there were quite a few Mechaniloid crabs patrolling the walls along the way.

It made sense really, since they were the only Mechaniloids in this area that could adapt to a sudden shift in position. Nevertheless, Zero alternated between using his Z-Saber to cut down electric shots and leaping his way up the walls until he made it to the very top of the submarine. But instead of being met with a way out, he was more surprised to find another set of steel doors in his way. Swinging his sword out, Zero remarked "…Huh, looks like I got lucky. This appears to be Crush Crawfish's submarine…"

Zero went through the passage and ended up in a secluded room, dropping a bit to the ground and swinging his sword out to the right as he heard some water steadily dripping off the ceiling. He waits a few seconds and looks around cautiously, and the ceiling opens up before a Reploid drops down into the room. The Reploid landed on it's proportionately small feet and looked straight at Zero from his crustacean face, which came complete with two very long yellow and metallic antennae.

The Reploid had the body of a bipedal lobster, complete with sharp metallic claws and shell-like purple shoulders. He also had the inability to stay still, as he twitched around sporadically while keeping a firm glare on Zero. In an unhinged tone of voice, the Reploid remarked "Why did the ship turn upside-down?! What's going on?! Who are you?!" Zero pointed his sword at them and said "Crush Crawfish, it's time for you to answer for your crimes!"

Crush Crawfish tilted his head to the right and said "What?! Crimes?! What are you, a Maverick Hunter?! But I'm not a Maverick!" Crush Crawfish then scratched the side of his head with the tip of his right pincers and with a confused expression remarked "…Or am I? Maverick? Reploid? Reploid? Maverick? I don't seem to recall just what I am…"

Zero glared at the Maverick as they continued on to say "Umm…Wait though, if I'm a Maverick, then that means I'm being hunted here? But you don't look like a Hunter…You look like a Maverick too…But wouldn't that mean you're a friend? No wait…A friend wouldn't try to kill me, so you must be an enemy! Or not…Or you are…Or not….Or not….WHAT ARE YOU?!" Zero remarked "It's as you say…I'm a Maverick Hunter. And your time is up, Crush Crawfish."

"Nah…You have to be lying to me. You're a Maverick! There's three things I don't trust in this world…Liars, Mavericks, and lying Mavericks! You're definitely an enemy, and I'm actually the Maverick Hunter in this situation! Heheheh…You'll pay for invading on my property, Maverick!" Crush Crawfish, with his insane logic backing him up, snapped his pincers together so tightly that they made an echoing noise across the room, and it signified that he was ready for battle. Zero was too, and he just had to wait for the Maverick to make the first move.

Crush Crawfish started off by literally throwing his right claw at Zero, though it was still connected to a tough but invisible magnetic force at the end of the arm. Zero leaped back onto the wall and let the claw pierce the steel doors, and the Maverick quickly fired his other claw out and tried to grab Zero in them, only for him to leap over it and attempt to perform a downward slash on the Maverick's head, but Crush Crawfish retracted his right claw in time to defend himself.

Zero steps back after his attack failed, surprised by the fact that the claws were tough enough to avoid being cut by the Z-Saber. Crush Crawfish swung his right claw forward and fired a spinning intersecting couple of bladed rings at Zero, taking Zero by surprise again and making him take a moment to swing his sword out horizontally in a quick slash to take down the projectile, followed by him doing the same for three more projectiles before Crush Crawfish leaped forward and cut off Zero's ability to leap out of the way.

But instead of letting that dissuade him, Zero pulled an X and slid underneath the Maverick before they could thrust the tips of his claws into his body, instead puncturing them right into the ground and leaving himself stuck in place for a few seconds. This gave Zero enough time to pick himself up and turn around, slashing his sword across the Maverick's back and putting a decent sized cut in there. Before he could perform a second attack, Crush Crawfish pulled the claw from the ground and turned around, widening his claws enough that the tip was able to reach out and cut diagonally into Zero's armor.

Zero widened his eyes for a moment as he stepped back and then swung his sword forward to deflect Crush Crawfish's attempt to fire another of his claws out and pinch him. Zero then dashes forward and stabbed his Z-Saber out while it was gripped in both hands, piercing directly through the Maverick's chest but not managing to hit any crucial parts of his inner machinery. Crush Crawfish still let out a couple bits of steam from his forehead as he swung his left claw up and prepared to launch it down like a guillotine.

Zero had only one second to leap back before the claw came down and split right through the ground, but Crush Crawfish was now stuck really deep into the floor. He was a powerful Maverick, but certainly not a bright one due to his insanity. Zero rushed forward ready to perform another stab with his Z-Saber, but then Crush Crawfish brought his other claw in front of him and clamped it down right on top of Zero's blade just inches away from his face. The Maverick then used his strength to pull the blade right out of Zero's grip, throwing it right up into the ceiling without pausing once.

Zero was now left without a weapon to defend himself from the claws, and had to play defensively for a bit by performing a backflip to dodge the Maverick's attempt to swipe both of his claws in front of his body. Zero summons his buster in his right hand and fires a few shots at Crush Crawfish, only for the Maverick to leap forward and swing his right claw down behind Zero, using the magnetic pull he had to drag himself downward quickly, giving Zero only a moment to slide underneath him and get to the other side of the room.

Standing up, Zero then leaped as high as he needed to grab onto his Z-Saber and pull it from the ceiling with one quick tug. He then lands on the ground and leaped right over another claw swing from Crush Crawfish, and by combining his buster's charging capabilities with his Z-Saber Zero swung his blade straight down as hard as he could as it glowed green. His empowered Z-Saber cut right through the Maverick's other claw and split him right in half from front to back, all the while Crush Crawfish could only have a wide-eyed expression on his face as his life came to a swift end.

Without the ability to control his claws, the one he had sent out earlier dropped to the ground, and Zero turned himself around and placed his inactive Z-Saber on his back right as Crush Crawfish exploded behind him. His parts were sent scattering across the room, but Zero calmly just walked over to the claw that was left behind and picked it up under his right arm, hoping to take it back with him so X could copy Crush Crawfish's power for his own use. But before he could contact Iris, a subdued but mystical sounding voice calls out to Zero from behind with "Yet another brother-in-arms slain…"

Zero turned himself around and cautiously grabbed onto the handle of his sword with his left hand, seeing before him a very tall humanoid Reploid. The Reploid had a mythical appearance to him, with a Buddhist idol's face and a golden arch attached to the back of both of his bolted shoulders. His knees and feet were similarly bolted, and he had a bulky upper body with a rounded iron belly and firm arms. His blue metal hands were held together in front of his chest, and he had an overall serene appearance to him.

Zero blinked a couple times, wondering how the Reploid got into this room without him noticing, and then he inquired without showing too much hostility "Who are you?" The Reploid opened his eyelids up and remarked to Zero in a calm tone of voice "I am Byte, the brother of the Reploid your friend X met not too long ago. It is an honor to come face-to-face with the famous Zero…"

"So you're working with that Bit person…I figured he had a partner. So are you here to observe me like he did?" Zero inquired, and slowly Byte shook his head and remarked to the puzzled Hunter "I do not wish to do anything like that here. I will not fight on the graveyard of a fallen brother-in-arms…"

Zero perked his eyelids up a bit upon hearing Byte stating that, followed by Byte bending forward slightly and picking up a part of Crush Crawfish's body, lifting it up in front of his head while his palm was open and remarking a moment after looking at it "May you find peace in the great beyond, Crush Crawfish…" Zero stared at Byte and said to him "Why are you wanting a Maverick to find peace? He killed hundreds of innocent people and Reploids."

Byte lowered the part onto the ground and remarked "Is it truly sinful for one to do their work in this world? We were all created for a purpose, after all. But I suppose I do understand why you would have such a stance, Zero." Zero paused for a moment and thought about that comment, and Byte told him afterwards "But regardless of our stances on life and death, and the morality involved in both…You and I know that we have to fight eventually, don't you Zero?"

"If you're looking for one, I suppose that's the case. But if don't want to fight here, where do you want to fight at?" Zero inquired, and Byte held his hands together in front of his chest and remarked in a peaceful tone "You will be going to Gravity Beetle's facility next, I know that for a fact. You will find me there on your way through the facility, and there is where we will fight."

"…Why do you fight, Byte?" Zero inquired while giving him a firm glare, and Byte nodded his head forward and remarked "I will tell you once we meet again, Maverick Hunter Zero. Perhaps you should look at yourself and think about that very same question in the mean time…" Byte then suddenly disappeared from the room after a gust of wind passed on by, leaving Zero by himself with the claw of Crush Crawfish still grasped under his arm.

"…Hmmm…" Zero only contemplated the matter for a little bit before he decided to focus back on the mission, and with a hand against his helmet he remarked "Mission's complete Iris. Go ahead and call me back to base so I can give X this Maverick's power." It didn't take very long after that for Iris to send down the beam of light that would carry Zero back to HQ, where he was already given a reason to head to the next facility…

 _Next Time: Vile's Revenge_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Poacher of the Night, Neon Tiger**

Around roughly the same time, X and Zero returned to the Maverick Hunter HQ after dealing with Volt Catfish and Crush Crawfish respectively. The two discarded their immediate thoughts and looked at each other in surprise, and after a moment X looked at the claw Zero was carrying under his arm and inquired "You brought me back another part to copy a power off of?" Zero nodded his head and pulled the claw out of his arm, tossing it over to X with one hand while telling him "Knock yourself out X. This one's from Crush Crawfish."

X caught the claw in both of his hands and began to copy the power within, which caused his armor to turn red and white for a moment by the time he was done. He then began crushing the claw down with his bare strength while looking at Zero, who was at the moment deep in thought, and asking him in a curious tone "Something the matter Zero?" Zero glanced at X and moved his right hand away from his chin while remarking "I should be asking you the same thing. Looks like something's on your mind X."

"Can't hide anything from you, can I? I've run into a bit of a problem…Doppler has brought Vile back to life." The news of that insane Maverick's revival got Zero to look notably worried for the first time in a long while, most of it stemming from remembering what happened the last time he saw Vile. Zero looked at X with a bit of a glare and remarked "You've got to be kidding me…Is Doppler out of his mind? Why would he revive someone as insane as Vile? HOW could he have revived Vile in the first place? His remains were buried in the sea along the rest of Sigma's base…"

"That didn't stop the X-Hunters from getting your remains, Zero. And going on what Sigma said, if Doppler was aligned with him this entire time, then he could've gotten the X-Hunters to pick up Vile's remains as well." X stated, and Zero remarked in regards to such a possibility while maintaining a disturbed look on his face"That'd make the most sense. So let me guess…Vile challenged you to a fight, X?"

X nodded his head, followed by Zero folding his arms together and remarking "Well…Be careful when you do fight him X. I have my own fight I need to get to, unfortunately, otherwise I'd help you out." X looked surprised by that and asked Zero "What do you mean by that Zero?"

"Turns out Bit had a brother named Byte, and he wants me to go to the facility of a Reploid named Gravity Beetle in order to meet him in battle. He doesn't seem like a cold-hearted individual, so I imagine there's no threat in waiting a bit, but it's not Byte I'm worried about causing trouble if I don't make it there soon…" Zero remarked, and X pointed out in turn while gesturing his right hand out "Vile threatened to destroy the remaining Reploids we have to meet if I wasted too much time trying to get to him. If you came along with me, I get the feeling he'd do the same thing."

"Sounds like him. Grrr…Once again he's just here to get in our way." Zero said with a little annoyance at the situation, followed by X remarking "So are you going to head to Gravity Beetle's facility right away, Zero?" Zero shook his head and stated "I'm going to heal myself up a little before I head out. I got enough time for that at least."

"Alright. Good luck then Zero." X said, giving good faith towards his friend, who in turn did pretty much the same thing as he remarked "Same to you X. Lets make it back here alive, we'll only have one Maverick left to deal with after this is said and done." Zero then went off to go heal himself, while X contacted Alia via his helmet and asked her to set up the coordinates for Neon Tiger's facility, since she witnessed enough of what happened at Volt Catfish's facility to know what he had to do next. Once everything was ready, X reentered the capsule and warped off to Neon Tiger's place…

X is dropped off in the middle of a jungle like domain, specifically on a rocky road close to the begin of something that looked like a wildlife preserve. But the only thing inside of this preserve were animal Reploids, all of them protected by cages and electric fences. X walked along the road for a little bit while looking around at his environment. The jungle was filled with trees that had metallic plates clamped around the trunk and strange purple metal vines drooping down from the tops, and the floor was covered in normal bushes.

Once at the end of the road, X stood underneath a tall and warm lamp and contacted Alia, asking to her "Since I'm here, I might as well deal with Neon Tiger too. Can you tell me anything about this guy?" Alia took a moment before she told him _"Neon Tiger is a poacher hunter…He was designed to protect the natural wildlife of the world from harm. He is a very effective and trained Reploid, but from what I heard he quit guarding natural wildlife to protect Reploid animals in Doppler Town."_

"If that's the case, then I imagine Doppler is responsible for his change in behavior. I'll deal with him after I find the capsule that leads to Vile's location." X stated calmly, and Alia remarked _"Just be careful out there. If something goes wrong, I get the feeling that I won't be able to teleport you out once you make it to Vile's location."_

X didn't like the sound of that, and with his eyebrows slanted in a worried manner he calmly said in a perturbed tone "…I'll keep that in mind, thanks Alia." He then signed off from communication with Alia and grabbed onto his arm cannon, focusing ahead on the entrance gate to the preserve. He didn't want to harm any of the animals unless they turned out to be Mavericks, so he would try and keep the firepower low for the time being. Leaping past the spiked pit, X lands in front of the gate and switches to Toxic Seahorse's colors.

Firing off an Acid Burst at the gate allows him to melt his way through, but the moment he does so a few sirens extend out from the top of the gate and go off while exclaiming "WARNING! WARNING! You are intruding on a wildlife preserve. WARNING! WARNING!" X grasped his arm cannon and calmly remarked "This feels a bit familiar…" before he then switched to his basic colors and leaped through the hole he made in the gate to land directly into the preserve.

Once inside of the preserve, X had to glance over his shoulder for a moment upon hearing the rapid fluttering of wings. There were a series of large mechanical dragonflies ready to defend their territory by swinging their tails below their thin bodies and firing lasers upon X. X leaped back with the help of his air dash boots to cover more distance, pointing his arm cannon outward and switching to Blizzard Buffalo's colors before firing a couple Frost Shields at the gap in the gate, sealing it up so the dragonflies couldn't pursue him.

X lands on the ground near the edge of the spiked gap, but he quickly turns himself around and leaps over the spikes to end up further into the reserve. Some of the Reploid animals are going wild now that X has broken into the area, but X just didn't let it disrupt his concentration. So long as he stayed away from them, everything would be fine, that's what X reassured himself with. He came across some more dragonflies along with some small armored tanks that appeared to be designed by Vile considering the color scheme and the type of helmet it had atop it's treads.

The dragonflies in this part of the reserve attacked differently than the ones outside, throwing small bombs from their tails in a spread pattern meant to force X to move in a certain way, followed by the tanks firing their gatling guns at X. But while leaping across the ground to get out of the way of the bombs X focused his attention on the tanks and switched to Volt Catfish's colors, utilizing his ability to swing his right hand out and spawn four electric orbs from his body that levitate to form the shape of a pyramid at it's points and then unleash an interconnected series of electric beams for a brief second, allowing X to just destroy the tanks by walking at them.

The electric that was attracted to the orbs also took out any dragonflies directly above X, leaving him with enough room to focus on the path ahead. X moved on until he reached a dead end in the form of a metallic wall, but he just leaped up at it and performed a wall jump to reach a wooden/metallic board suspended in mid-air by a couple of thick wires pretending to be vines. The board swung a bit from the presence of X's weight, but with it having metallic properties X is able to simply use his magnetic boots to keep himself steady. There were two more of those boards suspended in the air directly in front of X, all of them acting as a mid-air bridge to the other side of the area.

Atop one of those boards was one of the spiked-ball wielding Mechaniloids Zero had encountered, though this was the first time X saw one of these and thus remained cautious until he knew what it was capable of. He switched back to his normal colors and fired at the red Mechaniloid, only to be met with it swinging one of it's spiked balls out of it's shoulders to try and hit X, who instinctively leaped over it without thinking about what would happen afterwards. The spiked ball rips through the board, forcing X to get over to the next before he fell to the ground.

He then switched to Tunnel Rhino's colors and fired a Tornado Fang out from his arm cannon, and the drill missile successfully pierced through the front of the Mechaniloids' body, ripping through it's core unit and making it devoid of all functionality. It's hollowed out husk tips to the right and falls off the board while X pushes forward unimpeded the rest of the way across the bridge, culminating in him making a large leap over to a ledge on the other side with a ladder leading up to the next floor of the reserve.

On the second floor, there was some netting that had clearly been broken through by the pecking of some Reploid birds, but the cages left behind the netting were so clearly emptied out that it was obvious that they had long since flown the coop and gone off to parts unknown. Reminding himself to let Alia know about this later, X pressed on through the reserve and dropped down a couple feet, landing on another floor and immediately being blocked by a few drilling walls. X pulls his arm cannon back and charged up energy, firing off a large buster shot that broken through all the walls in his way and allowing him to move forward.

X sprinted on ahead for a few seconds until he reached a thick but cracked stone blocking the way further into the reserve. There was also a very heavily armored block on the ground with Vile's symbol on it, signifying that he was forcing X to find a way through the stone or he wouldn't be able to continue on ahead. X pointed his arm cannon at the ground beside him while remarking "You aren't being very subtle, Vile…" before he switched to Tunnel Rhino's again and pointed his arm cannon forward.

Firing at the stone with a few Tornado Fangs is more than enough to break through it, and once the stone has crumbled X walks through the rubble and dust until he reaches the end of the floor. Down below was a large spike pit, and on the other side of said pit was a violent and yellow capsule with Vile's distinctive design flourishes present throughout. X glared at the capsule and leaped across the gap with the help of his Air Dash boots, and landed on top of the capsule without hesitation. The capsule activated, and after a few seconds of glowing X was warped away from the reserve…

A few seconds of traveling through time and space later, X was warped directly into a room with a fairly big contrast in environment compared to where he just was. The walls were filled with moldy tubes and cut wires, a dim glow present from the tips of the broken wires to signify that some tiny bit of electricity still flowed through them. The floor was crack, the ceiling was rusted and damaged beyond repair, and there were hills of broken Reploid parts scattered around. X grasped his arm cannon and looked disgusted at the environment.

"This must be Vile's lab…How could he so cruelly toss aside Reploids as nothing more than parts?" X didn't need anymore of a reason to dislike Vile, but he still spoke with heavy irritation and glared at his surroundings. X charged forth with the utmost intention to stop Vile in his tracks here and now, and switched to Toxic Seahorse's colors as he leaped onto a higher ledge. He used nothing but fast leaps combined with his Air Dash boots to push his way through this junkyard laboratory, using the high-speed Acid Burst to melt through the heavy variety of Mechaniloids in the way.

X makes his way through the area until he makes it to a barely functioning elevator that was carried by two heavy, screw-like cables. X wasn't going to enter the elevator at first until he saw that the ceiling high above it was breaking apart and dropping heavy amounts of junk down the shaft, meaning that if nothing else the elevator would provide protect while he ascended his way to the top. X thus steps onto the elevator and it automatically rises up after a little bit of jerking, followed by X feeling the elevator rock as it is hit by falling debris. Though despite the rocky ride, X makes it to the top of the room and leaps off the elevator.

Going down the hallway, X takes down another one of those red Mechaniloids with a couple shots of his Acid Burst and leaps over the acid puddle created afterwards, ended up below a ladder that he quickly climbs up and uses to get to what can only be assumed as the top floor of the laboratory, as there was a pair of steel doors in the way that usually signified the most important part of the room. X went through the passage beyond the steel doors and landed in a wide-open room with a slightly different aesthetic to it.

There was a large broken window to the left of X revealing the towering buildings of Doppler Town, signifying that X was now somewhere within the city. X widened his eyes upon noticing that and quietly remarked "W-What the…?" But his attention would quickly be diverted when a large crash made him turn to the right. Standing on the opposite end of the room was Vile riding inside of a large monochrome Ride Armor, one that looked a lot more armored and powerful than the last, complete with spiked fists and plated feet. Vile had his hands grasped on the control sticks and his body shook as he was in the middle of laughing.

"HAHAHAHA! Welcome to the place of your demise, X! Now I'll do what you did to me and throw you into the scrap yard for good!" Vile exclaimed with the utmost glee in his voice as the engine of his Ride Armor roared ferociously, and as X turned to look at the vicious Maverick he exclaimed "Vile! Why is your laboratory in the middle of Doppler Town?!"

"Who cares about that?! Why do you always ask such pointless questions X?! There's only one thing that matters right now, and that's that I will grind you into dust with my new Ride Armor! Either fight me now, or roll over and die!" Vile quickly threw himself into a state of absolute impatience towards X's behavior, and knowing that the Maverick was not one to make idle threats X quickly drew his arm cannon at Vile and exclaimed "Fine then! I won't hold anything back! You're going to regret coming back to life, Vile!"

"HAHAHAHAH! That anger in your eyes…I remember that look on your face when I scrapped Zero before! Show me your rage X, show me your hatred! Fuel me with your anger until I beat it all out of you! Make me feel alive, X!" Vile then wasted no time in charging his Ride Armor across the ground, grinding down the metallic floor as he commanded the right arm to rise up ready for use in impaling X. X leaps to the right, and even with Vile anticipating his movements as he swiveled his Ride Armor and brought the fist down X is able to narrowly dodge the punch as it slams against the ground, punctures it, and makes the room tremble.

X fires a few shots of the Acid Burst at Vile's Ride Armor, but because of this he would swiftly learn the limitations of the weapon as the acid strikes against it and doesn't even put a centimeter of damage into the metal. Vile laughs as he rips his spiked fist from the ground and pulls a large chunk of metal up with it, exclaiming to X with glee "YOU THINK YOU'D WIN THAT EASILY, X?!" Vile then thrusts the right control stick forward as hard as he could, causing the spikes on the arm to drill the metal apart into chunks that are sent flying all at once towards X.

X can't avoid all of the debris, but fires an Acid Burst at some of the chunks to metal them down before quickly switching to Tunnel Rhino's colors and firing forth a Tornado Fang to try and drill through Vile's Ride Armor. But Vile charges forward and bats aside the Tornado Fang with his left arm before pulling both of them out and attempting to clamp them down on X's head. X leaped in place and landed atop the two arms with his legs slightly spread and then quickly charged up his normal buster to maximum.

With his arm cannon aimed at Vile's face, X fires it off and connects, but not before Vile growls angrily and causes his Ride Armor's arms to swing up and throw X right at the ceiling, where he hits his head and gets knocked across the room in recoil. Vile stumbles back in the Ride Armor a little after that, but his main body has only taken a little bit of damage across the helmet, and he exclaims "That charged shot…Hehehehe! YES X, LETS CONTINUE THIS DANCE OF OURS AGAIN!"

X quickly pushes himself onto his feet and shakes off the damage done to his head, and he then switches to Crush Crawfish's colors and decides to try out his weapon against Vile's Ride Armor. As Vile charges towards him, X crossed his arms in front of his chest and summoned forth two red bladed discuses and grasped them in his fingers, leaping over Vile the moment he tried to swing his right fist out and then spinning around in mid-air so he could throw both Spinning Blades at the back of the Ride Armor.

The blades were sharp enough to cut through the tough metal of the Ride Armor, creating a wide "X" on the back of it that revealed some wires and vulnerable machinery within. Vile immediately turned his Ride Armor around and fired one of his fists off at X, taking the Hunter by surprise as he barely swerved himself to the right, with the edge of the fist striking X in the face and causing him to stumble back. Vile then pulled the fist back to his Ride Armor as he charged forward, and he rammed straight into X's body as hard as he could.

X is sent hurtling across to the other side of the room, slamming against the wall and rebounding off it, with the shield appearing around his body afterwards to protect him when Vile tries to shoot his fist out to hit him again. The fist grinded against the shield like a drill for a few seconds, but Vile retracts it when it wasn't proving effective. X then leaps high up and uses the Air Dash boots to shoot himself diagonally over Vile when he goes in for another charge, slamming both of his fists directly into the wall and puncturing it.

X lands behind Vile and flips himself around, waiting for him to pull his fists out of the wall and turn around to charge at him before switching to Volt Catfish's colors and quickly using a Triad Thunder to protect himself as Vile tries to punch him with both fists. The electricity discharges from the shield the brief second it is there and makes Vile recoil back, with the Maverick exclaiming "YOU'RE WEAK X, YOU CAN'T WIN WITHOUT THESE DIRTY TRICKS!" X then charged forward and positioned himself underneath the Ride Armor.

Grabbing the underside of the Ride Armor with both of his hands, X uses all of his strength to pull it up from the ground while Vile remarked in a tone of puzzled surprise "W-What?!" as X then throws the Ride Armor right behind him, roaring with all of his might as his arms are swung above his head and the Ride Armor is thrown onto it's front side, skidding against the ground as Vile jerks forward and almost falls out of his machine. Now that the Ride Armor was down, X turned himself around and aims at the crack he made on the back of Ride Armor while switching to Tunnel Rhino's colors.

"If I'm weak Vile…Then where does that leave you?" X bluntly stated before firing off the Tornado Fang, and it flies through the air and pierces itself into the back of Vile's Ride Armor as he punched his fists against the ground to position it back upright. The Tornado Fang drills through the center of the cracks and burrowed itself through the machinery and wires, and immediately the Ride Armor starts twitching rapidly before the Tornado Fang rips punctures it's way through the front of the Ride Armor. It pulls out the core of the Ride Armor and grinds it to bits, destabilizing the energy flowing through the machine.

As the Ride Armor starts to explode, Vile can only laugh at what was happening, his maniacal behavior continuing until the whole thing blows apart, creating an explosion big enough to force X to lift his arms to guard himself. But in the aftermath of the explosion, X felt he could spread his arms away from his face and feel relaxed knowing that Vile has likely perished once more within the explosion of the Ride Armor. However, then Vile's laughter continues once more, this time at a more unhinged pitch as he slowly walks through the smoke of the explosion towards X. X raised his arm cannon up at Vile, but watched as the smoke faded away and Vile emerged from it with a greatly damaged body. His helmet was halfway broken, with his weapons barely functional and his leg armor busted apart.

"Hahahah…You'll never get rid of me that easily X! You may have destroyed my prototype Ride Armor, but I'll just finish the final model "GOLIATH" and finish you off for good next time!" Vile exclaimed, followed by X preparing to charge his arm cannon and exclaiming "Not going to happen! This is the end of the road for you Vile!"

Vile paused for a moment, and then went back to laughing as he pulled a hand away from his left arm and held up a remote control that he pulled off of his armor, putting a thumb dangerously close to the button while exclaiming "Hahahahaah! If you take a shot at me now X I will activate this self-destruct button, which will destroy most of the buildings within this stupid town!" X widened his eyes and exclaimed "You're bluffing Vile!"

"Do you want to try me X?! That stupid doctor would be all too willing to use my actions to pin the blame on the Maverick Hunters, and then he'd be justified in launching an all-out war due to you breaking the diplomatic immunity! So come on X, is killing me worth the carnage and destruction you'll cause once I activate this trigger?!" Vile gives his ultimatum to X, forcing him into a decision that he wouldn't like no matter what he chose. Either let Vile go, or destroy him and risk a war between Doppler Town and the Maverick Hunters.

X still had a chance to break Doppler's diplomatic immunity, and Vile was so bent on killing X that it was hard to imagine him wanting X to get involved in a war that could end in his destruction. As horrible as it was, X had to rely on Vile's focus on destroying him. Dispelling the charge in his arm cannon slowly, X lowered his arm and grit his teeth, and Vile just began slowly laughing while raising his left arm up to his chest and laying his hand across his chest, pressing down on a button that causes his body to begin fading to indicate that he was going to teleport. But before he vanished from sight, he told X "You're pathetic X…All you are is just a law-abiding puppet…"

Before he was gone for good, Vile pressed the button on the remote and stated "And now you're going to be destroyed for it! HAHAHAHAHA!" As Vile's laugh echoed across the empty room, X widened his eyes and exclaimed "NOOOOOO!" as the remote fell to the ground, the act already done. X only had a few seconds to think about what just happened before the entire place begin rumble from a series of explosions going off from within. X stood upright and glanced out the window, seeing that this building was the only one exploding and gritting his teeth in anger at the fact that Vile had tricked him before he turned to the right and sprinted towards the doors on the opposite side of the room.

He made his way out the doors as the explosions continued to ravage the place all around, and without any attention paid towards all of the Mechaniloids that tried to stop him X leaped down a few shafts and made his way through some winding hallways, using all of his strength and focus to keep himself concentrated on his path until he eventually made it to a second teleporting capsule, and he didn't hesitate to leap into it and use it to take himself out of the area right as it is consumed by the monstrous flames created by the explosion.

After a brief warp, X is taken back to the reserve, though now he was placed on a different part of the area, ending up atop a metallic ledge of a building deeper into the facility. X looked around for a moment and then started panting heavily from the stress of everything that had happened. He leans up against the wall behind him and contemplates the decision he made. He hated himself most of all for choosing to let Vile escape, remembering how the same decision to give in to a Maverick's demand is what allowed Sigma to send missiles into Abel City and in turn cause the death of thousands, most importantly Dr. Cain…

X felt foolish for not having learned anything since making that mistake the first time, and while gritting his teeth in rage he let a frustrated roar and then punched the wall behind him with the back of his right fist. All of his strength went into this punch, and he caused the wall to be filled with cracks and a segment of it to crumble apart. X, with his head hung forward slightly, had a melancholy look on his face before he murmured out "…Why am I such an idiot? …If Zero had been in the same situation, he would have just taken out Vile…"

After a momentary pause, X sighed and lifted his hand up to contact Alia via his helmet, but finds that there is a lot of static in the communicator at this moment. He knew to expect that because of being at Vile's lab, but it didn't'really help X calm himself down. He then looked around for a moment, and saw that the wall he just punched had broken down, revealing behind it a short passage leading, to X's surprise, the final Dr. Light capsule. X was surprised by the fact that it was there for him to find, but his expression turned to one of relief as he ran down the passage to reach the capsule.

As it activated, X knew that Dr. Light would be able to help him out. The hologram of the doctor appeared, and he only smiled for but a moment before he noticed X's worried look, at which point the doctor inquired politely _"…Something appears to be the matter with you X. Do you have something you wish to speak to me about?"_ X lifted his head up to look at Dr. Light, asking him to the best of his ability "Dr. Light…A Maverick forced me to decide between letting him go, or taking him out and causing him to activate a detonator that would have taken out a lot of populated buildings."

" _And what was your decision?"_ Dr. Light inquired, though his tone suggested he already knew the answer. X grasped his right arm tightly and hesitantly admitted "…I let him go, but he still activated the detonator. It turns out he only planned on blowing up the building I was in, but my failure to react appropriately still could have led to the destruction of hundreds of possibly innocent Reploids. This isn't the first time something like this has happened…Dr. Light, was there anything else I could have done?"

Dr. Light closed his eyelids in contemplation of what X asked of him, thinking about it for a few good seconds before he said _"I feel as though this is truly a difficult question to answer. There are many people out there, whether robotic of human, who are too willing to take advantage of the good will of others to perform their diabolical tasks. Unfortunately, it's impossible to reason with those who behave like sociopaths. I suppose the best advice I can offer is to simply not let them go that far…If you know they are a threat, take them out as quickly as possible."_

He then smiled and said _"But do not misconstrue my words X. I am still proud of you for taking others' lives into consideration before you made your decision. Now then, do you feel a little better?"_ X nodded his head in response, and had a more uplifted look on his face because of Dr. Light's words. The hologram then remarked _"Excellent. X…Since you are here, it's time for you to receive the final part of your Third Armor. This will give you a more powerful buster, and allow you to fire them out much faster than before."_

Dr. Light then disappears, allowing X to step into the capsule and receive the final armor part after being hit with an influx of data as usual. When everything was said and done, X had received his upgraded buster, which was a resembled a rounded cube with a square, dark grey barrel and a green lens within it that was used to charge energy. There were also a couple exhaust vents to help with the excess of energy X would be building up every time he charged it. X stepped out of the capsule and examined his new buster for a bit until Dr. Light reappeared, which caused X to turn around and look at him.

" _The Third Armor is now complete. I know you will use it well in the future X…Do not lose faith in yourself or in others, and everything will turn out just fine. Good luck, and I pray the time will come when you will no longer need to use these armors of mine…"_ Dr. Light remarks, and before he vanished from sight X responded with "I agree. Thank you though for all you've done, Dr. Light…" The hologram disappeared, and X turned himself around and sprinted out of the passage. He leaps off the ledge he had been teleported onto earlier and landed on the ground, and once he glanced behind him he saw the steel doors that would lead to Neon Tiger's room.

With a bit of renewed confidence, X went through the passage beyond the steel doors and ended up in the last room of the preserve. Inside this small secluded room, the Reploid X was looking for was already standing there waiting for him. Standing tall and upright at the opposite side of the room was a tiger-like Reploi with bright, fiery colors across his arms and legs, a silver claw atop each of his rounded toes, a long black and orange segmented tail, and his arms crossed in a fold in front of his chest while his eyes were closed.

"So…You've finally arrived, Maverick Hunter X." The Reploid said with a gruff but rather kindly tone of voice, and he opened his eyelids at that point and slightly bore his large fangs. X looked at the Reploid and said to him "Neon Tiger…You've been waiting for me?"

"Of course. You set off the alarms in my preserve, after all…I knew it was only a matter of time before you would come here." Neon Tiger stated, and X asked him "There's one thing I have to ask…Why are you disobeying your orders? You are supposed to protect natural wildlife, not Reploid animals. Have you gone Maverick, Neon Tiger?"

Neon Tiger, surprisingly, nodded his head at X and told him "More than likely I have. But I feel as though I see the logic in my decision…As much as you'd probably hate to admit it X, but there's a high possibility that Reploids are going to become the future of our world. Protecting humans and animals, both of whom are likely to go extinct in due time…It feels like such a waste of my purpose. Truthfully X, it frightens me to know that I'm thinking like this, that I am slowly becoming more and more of a threat towards others…"

"…" X said nothing at the moment, allowing Neon Tiger to remark with his fangs grit together "X…I don't know how much longer it will be before I fully turn Maverick, and I bring harm to the animals I was designed to protect, regardless of whether they are organic or mechanical. Please…Before I lose my way…" Neon Tiger swung his arms out and hunched forward, summoning forth three sharp laser claws from his hands while putting on a fierce expression and remarking "Show me a good fight, and put an end to my life!"

X looked at Neon Tiger, and with his left arm trembling a bit he raised his arm cannon up while grasping the left hand firmly around the barrel, remarking as he did so "I will, Neon Tiger. I'm sorry this had to be this way…" "Don't be…You're doing the right thing, and I will hold no ill will towards you for my destruction." Neon Tiger said, and he let out a roar capable of shaking the very leaves off the trees in the immediate area before beginning his battle against X.

Neon Tiger sprinted across the room at a very high speed, forcing X to use only the second he had to leap to the right before he was slashes apart by the claws of his foe, which were capable of rending apart even the thick steel of the doors behind X as if they were paper. X rapidly shot his buster at Neon Tiger, but even with the enhancements the basic pellets weren't enough to make Neon Tiger do anything but flinch. The Maverick then turned himself around and swung his claws out, using the laser functionality to swing claw mark shaped projectiles at X.

X switched to Volt Catfish's colors and quickly summoned forth a Triad Thunder to protect himself from the attack, but Neon Tiger took advantage of the second after the electricity dropped to charge forward and swing his right claws out to slash at the chest of X's armor. Even with the upgrades he has received, Neon Tiger was able to put a decent sized gash into X's chest plate, with X leaping to the left preventing most of the damage. X then switched to Tunnel Rhino's colors and leaped back, charging up energy within his body now that he could power-up the Maverick weapons he had gotten.

Once he had reached a fully charge, X swung his right arm out and his arm cannon transformed into a gigantic drill that had enough push to it in order to send him propelling forward while it spun rapidly around. Neon Tiger swung his claws in front of his body and protected himself from X's charged Tornado Fang, even with the rapid rotation of the drill ripping apart the energy from his claws and sending sparks flying across the room. Once the drill dispels, Neon Tiger slashes his claws outward and grinned, telling X proudly "You're very strong X…Thank you for not holding anything back."

X nodded his head as his response as he pointed his arm cannon at Neon Tiger and leaped back, switching to Blizzard Buffalo's colors and using both of his arm cannons to rapid-fire Frost Shields at Neon Tiger. Neon Tiger just stood in place and slashed apart the icy missiles as they flew his way, followed by swinging his tail in front of his body, making the tip glow before he fired off a series of miniature bright golden sparks at X. These sparks act as bombs that go off across X's body, but X stops these from hurting him by charging up the Frost Shield and creating a large spike shield of ice that extended from the barrel of his arm cannon.

But Neon Tiger followed up by leaping off the ground like a tiger would and ramming his claws forward, stabbing one of them through X's left shoulder and applying enough force to press X back against the wall. The Frost Shield is shattered by Neon Tiger's other set of claws, though this left X's buster open to be used. He quickly swung his arm up away from the range of Neon Tiger's claws, charging it up as much as he could. Before Neon Tiger could stop him, X fired a charged shot close range at his foe's face, hitting him with a ton of force and creating an explosion and knocking him back a few good feet.

The claws were pulled out of X's shoulder, but along with the charged shot a few more average sized shots came out and homed in on Neon Tiger, striking him all at once in the arms and causing some decent harm to his body. X then took the moment to grasp the scar on his shoulder while using his helmet to scan Neon Tiger's body, discovering that he was weak to Crush Crawfish's weapon. Switching to that Maverick's colors, X swung his hands out and summoned two Spinning Blades into his grasp.

He threw them at Neon Tiger one after the other, and when he tries to use his claws to defend himself the blades simply traveled along the length of the claws and went to the parts of the hands that were projecting the claws, tearing them apart and causing the claws to start malfunctioning against Neon Tiger's will. "Gah!" He grunted in surprise, but while the regular Spinning Blades did their job X charged up his energy and swung his right hand up, causing an energy string to extend out from beneath his palm while it spawned at the end a large version of the Spinning Blades.

X then swung his hand across the front of his body, guiding the large blade down through the air in an arc towards Neon Tiger. It flies by so quickly and sliced through Neon Tiger's body in an instant, giving him no time to leap out of the way. X closed his eyelids slightly in sadness for what he had to do, but Neon Tiger just lets the upper half of his body fall to the ground while he puts a content smile on his face.

X then turned his armor back to normal colors and walked over to Neon Tiger, who was barely able to lift his head up to look at X. With a bit of a grin on his face, Neon Tiger remarked "Well…done…X…Hehe…The humans…And the animals of this world…are in good hands. Please…protect them with everything you've got…Fight X…fight for…everlasting…peace…" Neon Tiger's voice cuts out right at the last word he needed to say, and his face falls flat against the ground with his mouth left agape and his eyes going blank. X closed his eyelids and grit his teeth slightly, but knew that all he had to do to make sure that Neon Tiger's request would be fulfilled was to copy his power.

X bent down and laid his hand onto the head of Neon Tiger, and as his powers went to work his armor became red-orange and yellow for a brief moment. He then stood upright, and began to move his hand towards his helmet hoping to contact Alia. However, she is the one who manages to do it first, though her voice comes out a little static-y at first to show that she had just gotten the connection reestablished _"X-X…! X! Come in X! Can you hear me?!"_

Her voice showed a great deal of concern towards X, and it was clear that she hadn't seen anything since X went into the teleporting capsule to Vile's laboratory. X decides not to get too into the details and remarks to Alia "I'm alright Alia. I've defeated Neon Tiger, but Vile got away…" Alia's grainy sigh could be heard through the helmet, and she remarks in an exasperated tone _"So I'm guessing that explosion I saw in Doppler Town was caused by Vile…I'm just glad you weren't caught in it. But the situation has changed X…You need to get back to the HQ immediately!"_

X widened his eyes in surprise and inquired "What? What's going on Alia?!" Alia could only quickly tell X _"Zero's already going to deal with the last Reploid of interest…But if he doesn't find any proof of Doppler's plans, then Doppler has said that because of the explosion caused within his town, he'll declare a justified war on the Maverick Hunters AND Repliforce!"_ X grit his teeth in shock of what Doppler's plans were, and he waited for Alia to set up the beam that would teleport him back to base, knowing that now he had to put all of his faith into Zero to finish this mission…

 _Next Time: Intertwining Missions_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Steel Revenger, Gravity Beetle**

Going back to the past a little bit, we find Zero as he was finished getting healed up inside of his capsule. He left his room and started to walk back to the teleporter, laying a hand against the side of his helmet to contact Iris while he headed down the hallway, asking her as he did so "Iris, you heard what Byte said over the communicator, right?" _"Yes Zero. I've already got the coordinates set up for you to go to Gravity Beetle's domain. Zero, do you think this might be a trap?"_ Iris had a bit of concern in her voice as she spoke.

Zero paused for a moment outside the room and told Iris"I was thinking about that, but I'm sure Byte can be trusted. It's really peculiar though…He's working for Doppler, but he shows no signs of being a Maverick. If he was anything like one, he'd have demanded a battle from me right back at Crush Crawfish's facility." _"He does seem like a nice Reploid, doesn't he? He's nothing like his brother Bit…"_ Iris remarked with a bit of surprise in her voice.

Zero closed his eyelids slightly and remarked "I guess so…But who knows if he's being completely honest about his personality. If he is being honest though, I'll try not to destroy him. Maybe once Doppler is out of the picture, he could become an ally." _"That'd be nice, but I wonder if his brother would approve of that. He has a rather different personality, after all."_ Iris remarked in turn, showing a bit of concern towards the plan.

"We'll see how it goes. So where am I going to next, Iris?" Zero stated as he went through the doors into the teleporter room, with Iris responding with a bit of a peppy sounding _"Gravity Beetle is controlling an airport. There's something you should know though…"_ Zero paused in front of the capsule and raised his eyebrows curiously.

" _Gravity Beetle was the brother-in-arms of Boomer Kuwanger. You remember him, right? He was one of the Mavericks X defeated in Sigma's first rebellion, and from what I heard he's been looking for revenge ever since. He likely is willingly working with Doppler to get back at X for the death of his brother-in-arms. He might want to take you out as his revenge."_ Iris warned, and Zero just stepped into the capsule and remarked "I'm not too worried about him. But thanks for letting me know that detail Iris, I'll definitely keep that in mind."

Zero then takes the teleporter to Gravity Beetle's airport facility, the warp through time and space lasting a few seconds but ending with him landing at the entrance of the airport's main building. The building lies between two long runways where some advanced looking planes were resting still, unused by either human or Reploid. The sun had risen high into the sky, signifying the turn of day to the afternoon, and Zero looked up at the building ahead of him and saw that it was rather tall, with there being a satellite dish at the very top signifying that this place is a communications tower.

Zero reached at his back and drew his Z-Saber, commenting as he did so "Alright Byte…Where are you going to be?" He sprinted forward and immediately came across some resistance in the form of those missile firing bipedal Mechaniloids. Zero used the wide pathway to dash around the missiles fired at him and then quickly slice across the front of the Mechaniloid, getting to the other side of them with how fast he swung his blade out. As the halves of his defeated foe fall down and explode, Zero continues his sprint along the pathway and vaulted over a couple steel crates to end up inside of the actual comms tower.

Zero runs for an enemy-free tunnel before ending up within the confines of he tower, where some cranes were busy moving plenty of crates around the walls to sort them out in various manners. Some of said crates were currently lined up in front of Zero to allow him to climb up the floating platforms and get close to the passageway in the ceiling. Some of these crates were guarded by the purple grenade lobbing Mechaniloids on top, and they fired upon Zero while the cranes went down to try and pick the crates up.

Zero dashed under the arc of the flying grenades and leaped directly underneath one of the crates, performing a quick slash forward to cut the purple Mechaniloid in half and then duck down behind the protection of the crate when it explodes. Zero quickly then leaps onto the crate as the crane latched to the sides of it and began carrying it upward, with Zero patiently waiting until it went high enough for him to leap forward and land onto a solitary platform, using his right foot to kick a Mechaniloid right off before it could even fire a grenade.

He then leaped across a couple platforms and went up to one close to the ceiling shaft, and he had to position his leap perfectly to land against the lip of the wall and begin wall jumping his way to the top of the room, where a short passageway led to a couple of steel doors. Zero was right to suspect that Byte would be waiting for him in there, and thus he cautiously made his way into the room while holding his sword out to the side. He dropped to the ground and looked around, suspecting that Byte would suddenly appear in the room at any given point in time…

But after a few seconds of standing around and looking, Zero didn't see Byte at all, wondering if perhaps he was late to his own fight. Zero decided to walk forward and check out the doors on the other side, finding out that they could be opened up without having to clear out an enemies. "Huh…Maybe he's not here after all. That worries me a little…" Zero decides to head through the steel doors while laying a hand up to his communicator, asking Iris as he did so "Any sign of Byte's signal in the area?"

" _I'm trying my best to find him, but he's keeping his signal blocked. I imagine that's Doppler's doing."_ Iris firmly replied while Zero made his way out of the room and ended up close to a ladder leading out of the building. Zero paused for a moment and remarked "Wouldn't surprise me…Byte's pretty smart otherwise though, he's playing with my expectations and making me act more cautionary than before. I'll keep going onward and see what I can find."

Zero then stops communication so he can use both of his hands to climb the ladder in front of him, making his way to one of the roofs of the tower, where he is met with a powerful breeze that pushed Zero back slightly once he stood on the ground. There were some more of those purple Mechaniloids and some of those flying drones in the immediate area, all of them guarding the way up to the next part of the tower. Zero sprints forward and cuts down the Mechaniloids in his way, recognizing that it was rather curious that there were these weaker Mechaniloids blocking the way considering the opposition he faced in the docking area.

"Guess Doppler doesn't care much about the airport…None of these planes look like military based ones, now that I think about it." Zero remarked to himself as he used an upward slice to take down a drone, followed by him using a short air dash to land on a wall and leap his way up to another part of the rooftop. Once at the very top of the roof, Zero moves forward slightly and then notices a ladder that would lead back down into the tower. Zero paused for a moment and sensed a sudden shift in the wind as he began to approach the ladder, and with his grip tightening a little more on the handle of his Z-Saber he remarked "So you're here…"

He then turns around and points his Z-Saber forward, remarking as he finds Byte standing on the roof top with a pike roughly as tall as his body grasped in his right hand. "I'm glad you arrived, Zero. Have you found the answer to the question you gave me in the short time since I first met you?" Byte starts off with a polite inquiry towards Zero, who shakes his head slightly and replied "Can't say I have yet. I'm focused on trying to stop Doppler at the moment. Are you going to tell me what you're fighting for now, Byte?"

Byte closed his small eyelids and remarked in a calm tone of voice "What I fight for is something rather complicated. Tell me Zero, have you ever considered that there may be an afterlife for robotic life forms such as us?" "Huh? What are you talking about?" Zero inquired in a very puzzled manner, and Byte went on to point his left fingers at Zero and tell him "To be alive, one has to have a soul…That's what the humans have said, and yet despite those standards, we do not have souls because we are manmade creations."

"Zero…You remember that you died, don't you? Do you also, perhaps, recall drifting between reality and the afterlife until the moment your body was rebuilt?" Byte inquired pressingly, with Zero pausing for a moment to take that manner into consideration before remarking "…I don't get what you're trying to say here, Byte."

"Think about it for a moment…Our bodies can be completely destroyed, but if someone rebuilds us, we can be granted the ability to recall that we had died. Take into consideration not just yourself, but Sigma's revival in this situation…What is it that allows Reploids to remember that they died when by all means it should be impossible? That is what I want to know Zero…What I fight for is to seek the answer to that question, and perhaps through the fallen bodies of the Reploids and Mavericks my brother and I defeat in our line of work I may find the one who holds the truth within their mind."

By the time Byte was done with his explanation, Zero closed his eyelids and said "The answer is a lot simpler than you think Byte. It's just a matter of saving a Reploid's memory core when they need to be reconstructed…" Byte opened his eyelids and said afterwards "But that's just the thing…Doppler told me that when he was reconstructing you, your memory core had been greatly damaged…And even so, you remember everything perfectly."

"H-Huh?" Zero sounded a bit surprised to hear that, with Byte remarking in a puzzled tone afterwards "You mean to tell me Dr. Cain did not tell you? …I apologize for that remark then, perhaps you were better off not knowing." Zero paused for a few seconds before swinging his sword down beside his body and remarking "…Byte, are you planning on killing me so you can get your answer?"

"Not at all…However…" Byte takes his pike in front of his body and swings it around rather quickly in all directions, stamping the base of it against the ground and remarking "Doppler has hired me to bring you directly to him…For some reason, the doctor is very interested in analyzing you much further than he did before. I am supposed to knock you unconscious, but I suppose for someone like you I will have to use a little more force…"

"You had a perfectly good chance to ambush me earlier Byte. The high winds in this area made it clear that you were nearly." Zero pointed out, and Byte nodded his head and explained to Zero "I could have done that…But I am not that type of Reploid. I have some degree of honor, regardless of my profession as a member of the Nightmare Police, and I am always one to test the skills of my opponent in fair combat."

"Then lets see what you got, Byte!" Zero stated, grasping his Z-Saber in both hands while Byte says in turn "The time for mincing words is over then, I see. Very well, I shall meet your blade in battle, Maverick Hunter Zero!" Byte swung his pike out quickly and wrapped the wind around his blade, sending out a barrage of wind blades out towards Zero.

Zero spins his blade around in front of his body like a pinwheel to deflect whatever wind blades came towards him, followed by him switching to his buster arm and firing a charged shot towards Byte's chest. Byte just had to poke his pike forward to pierce through the attack and take care of it, followed by him lifting his left hand up and firing his fist off from the rest of his body to try and punch Zero in the gut, showing his aim to throw him unconscious to be true.

Zero leaps over the fist and then charged up his Z-Saber, performing a flip in the air to increase the strength of his slash before swinging it straight down at the center of Byte's pike. Byte is pushed back a couple of inches as the sword connects, but the pike does not break even as the area rumbles from Zero's strength. Byte swings his pike out to push Zero away, though the robot recoiled off the attack and stood with his feet against the wall.

Byte recalls his left hand back to him with a magnetic pull and then raised his pike above him with both hands, and all of a sudden the skies darken for a brief moment as a bolt of lightning strikes the pike and electrifies it. Without exclaiming anything, Byte swings his pike as hard as he can against the ground, causing the electricity to erupt out in the form of a titanic pillar that crosses the ground and heads for Zero. Zero leaps diagonally off the wall to get past the lightning pillar, but the left side of his body is caught up in it right before he lands.

Zero performs a roll on the ground and finds the left side of his body paralyzed, with electricity spurting out of his armor plating as he's forced onto one knee. The pillar fades out of existence behind him and Byte wastes no time in taking advantage of Zero's weakness to thrust his pike down at the left side of Zero's body. Zero is forced to point his Z-Saber diagonally to protect the left side of his body while the paralysis disappears, but Byte quickly shifts his pike to the right side of Zero's body to poke into his right leg.

The blade puts a decent sized gash into the leg, but only hits some minor circuitry. Even so, Zero could not risk letting another attack get off on his body, so he quickly swung his Z-Saber to the right to deflect Byte's pike, by this point the paralysis having left his body and allowing him to stand upright and try to get an attack off on Byte's chest with a quick thrust of his Z-Saber forward. Byte once again reacts to Zero's movements by swinging his left hand out below his right arm and grabbing onto the top of Zero's Z-Saber.

Byte grunts in pain for a bit and is pushed back as Zero uses all of his strength to try and break Byte's grip, but all he manages to do is burn a little bit through Byte's palm. Zero then pulls back on his Z-Saber as Byte tries to swing his pike back at Zero's chest, and with a backflip he manages to avoid getting struck at the last second. "Your skills are praiseworthy, Zero…" Byte remarked as Zero landed on the ground, and Zero grinned a little and said "You aren't bad yourself Byte…If we weren't enemies, you'd be a good Maverick Hunter."

"But you know just why that cannot be the case…" Byte remarked, and Zero swung his sword around beside his body before replying with "Yeah, you admitted to killing Reploids along with Mavericks for your work. You may not act irrational, but that still means I have to label you as a Maverick, Byte." Zero then charges forward and tries to pierce his Z-Saber forward at Byte's stomach, but as usual Byte uses his pike to defend himself from the attack.

However, Zero then surprises Byte by leaping straight forward, letting go of his Z-Saber and charged up his buster right as he punches Byte square in the face. Byte is pushed back a couple of feet, but then Zero quickly lifts his buster up and fires it right at Byte's chest, and the earlier punch meant that Byte was left stumbling enough that the charged buster shot pushed Byte back to the edge of this part of the roof, his feet getting pushed off the edge enough that for as heavy as he is, Byte is unable to keep himself balanced and in a matter of seconds he falls backwards off the edge of the roof.

Zero runs forward the moment he lands on the ground and looks off the edge as Byte crashes against a lower part of the roof, creating a huge crater within the thick metal surface. Zero picks his sword up in his left hand and says to Byte "You ok?" Byte laughed a little, but he did it out of happiness more than anything else as he went on to reply with "Well well…It seems as though I have lost. I was not able to stand my ground against you, and in this vulnerable position you could've easily killed me if you wanted…"

Byte tried to small with the type of face he had, but only managed a brief grin as he went on to say "I am feeling perfectly well, Zero. Thank you very much for the battle…It seems as though I will have to find my answers somewhere else…" Byte then raised his left hand to his forehead and gave Zero a peaceful salute, with Zero remarking to him as he closed his eyelids and did the same "I hope you're successful, Byte." Byte then teleported out of the area via a beam of light, and with the two having shown their respect for one another as opponents Zero turned around and prepared to continue on to Gravity Beetle…

Moving back to the ladder he saw earlier, Zero climbs down it and comes into a hallway that comes complete with glowing green lights on the wall leading the way to an elevator. Zero runs forward unopposed, leaping forward and landing on top of the elevator, which is marked by a glowing "05" to the left, signifying that this is the fifth floor of the tower. The elevator jerks a little before it begins to rise up, the engines of it gyrating rapidly and making plenty of noise as it rose.

Zero readied his Z-Saber for the opposition that was obviously waiting for him as he moved up, and sure enough the first of the Mechaniloids showed up in the form of those bipedal missile launchers. Zero waits for them to fire off a couple of missiles so he can cut them down, and then he sprints forward and perform a swift forward slash to cut down the Mechaniloid before the elevator passed it by.

Nothing really changed between the rest of the floors, as there was one Mechaniloid per each floor standing on a ledge in wait of Zero, and without the ability to think beyond their basic programming Zero could just exploit their patterns to keep doing the exact same thing to defeat them until he made it to floor nine. The elevator jerked to a stop at this point, and Zero sprinted right off it and made it through a pair of steel doors.

He kept moving onward while still maintaining a good amount of caution on his mind, which proved to be pretty valuable when he landed on a series of loose steel pegs and watched as they instantly began to fall. He had to do a series of short hops across the pegs to make it to the other side of the room, dealing with a couple of those purple turret Mechaniloids along the way with swift sword cuts. Zero then leaps across a few ledges to ascend a shaft, then dashed across the hallway.

Some windows were now showing up on the walls, revealing the bright skies outdoors that Zero glanced at briefly as he climbed his way up to the very top, taking down the last Mechaniloids in his way regardless of how much opposition they decided to show. At the very top of the shaft, Zero ran towards the last set of steel doors in his way and made it through the passage to end up at the secluded room where Gravity Beetle is very likely waiting. The sunlight illuminated the room well, and Zero waited a few seconds for the Maverick to show up…

After that time has passed, the Maverick in question flew right through the window to the left, landing directly onto the ground and skidding a few inches before he turned himself around to face Zero and shut the metallic shell that protected his insect wings. The Maverick was hunched over slightly and had a predominantly blue color scheme with a little orange and red mixed in. He had a couple of metallic feelers coming out from below his small eyes, and he had a large helmet complete with a gigantic Rhinoceros Beetle horn and two sharp blades attached to the end of that.

"So it's you, Zero…It's been a long time." Gravity Beetle said in a respectful but largely professional tone of voice, and Zero said to him "It has been a while, hasn't it Gravity Beetle? You seem to be doing well, but what are you doing in this airport?" Gravity Beetle lifted his head up slightly and told Zero "This was the last facility that Doppler could give to me. It's fine though, an airport is very wide-open, and it allows me to fly around as much as I want to."

"So you're pretty happy here, is that what you're saying?" Zero inquired, and Gravity Beetle replied by stating in a more serious tone "…Lets not mince words here Zero. You and I both know why I'm here." "Right, because X killed your brother Boomer Kuwanger, and now you want to get revenge." Zero decided to cut right to the chase as well and calmly spoke that to the Maverick in front of him.

"Correct…Doppler said if I stayed here, eventually X would come, and I'd be able to defeat him then. But instead you showed up Zero." Gravity Beetle expresses his heartfelt disappointment at this news, but Zero tells him "Is this really what Boomer Kuwanger would have wanted? For you to become Maverick just like him? You should reconsider your options…If you haven't killed any humans or Reploids, we can always welcome you back."

Gravity Beetle shook his head and adamantly remarked to Zero "No. We weren't just brothers, Zero…Boomer and I were partners, and we were supposed to stick by each other no matter what. If that means I must be labeled a Maverick, then fine, be that way. But I'm not going to stop until X pays for what he did to my brother, even if that means I must perish in the process." Gravity Beetle then firmly glares at Zero and said "But so long as you are here, I suppose a good way to start my revenge against X is to destroy the Reploid he considers to be his brother-in-arms."

"You sure that's a good idea? If you somehow manage to destroy me, you'll just get X angry and he'll destroy you in a matter of seconds." Zero pointed out with his Z-Saber hung out beside him, and Gravity Beetle remarked "That's a risk I'll have to take. Besides, you aren't as strong as you think you are, Zero!"

Gravity Beetle's body then gains a distorting rainbow glow for a brief moment, and he picks the glass shards off the ground with a gravity manipulating force. He throws them all at Zero at once, forcing Zero to swing his sword around like a pinwheel in front of his body to slice through all of them and make them become dust. Zero then swung his sword out to the side and stated "So this is how it has to be, huh? I'm sorry you chose this path Gravity Beetle, you were always one of the best Hunters we had."

"As were you, Zero." Gravity Beetle shows off a bit of arrogance in his tone of voice, as though he was so certain that he would put an end to both Zero's career and life. Zero didn't say anything afterwards and just leaped right at the Maverick ready to attack, with Gravity Beetle leaping at Zero and opening his shell to thrust forward with a flap of his wings, extending his horn out in front of him to try and impale Zero between his shoulders. Zero swings his Z-Saber up in front of his body to protect himself by striking the area of the horn between both blades.

Gravity Beetle ends up ramming Zero right into the wall and just nicks the front of his armor at the same time. Zero pushes down on his Z-Saber to push Gravity Beetle down to the ground, and he quickly places his legs against the wall and leaps over the Maverick. Gravity Beetle quickly activates his gravity powers and forces Zero to the ground prematurely, which makes Zero land flat on his stomach and feel some pain reverberate through his body the moment he does so. Gravity Beetle then makes the blades on his horn glow bright.

With a swing of his horn down Gravity Beetle sends two blades of energy at Zero, but without the gravity holding him down anymore Zero quickly rolls out of the way of the attack and then pushes himself onto his feet while turning himself around to once more block a horn charge from Gravity Beetle. He just needs to use one hand to hold the Maverick at bay, and he holds his arm cannon down with a full charge ready to go. He fires at Gravity Beetle's chest and puts a good dent into it, which also pushed him back and gave Zero enough breathing room to perform another attack.

Zero attempts to stab his Z-Saber forward to take advantage of the dent he had created in Gravity Beetle's chest, but with his right hand extended out the Maverick used his powers to halt Zero's blade and give him enough time to spread his wings and fly over Zero's body, turning himself around and dropping his control over Zero's blade so he can instead use the power to create a series of gravity spheres across the air. Zero turns around and swings his sword out rapidly to cut down the gravity spheres that were flung his way.

But each time Zero cut down a sphere, the weight of his Z-Saber increased despite being made of energy, forcing Zero to compensate for the greater weight of his blade by increasing the strength he uses with every swing. Once all the gravity spheres are gone, Zero leaps into the air and grasped his Z-Saber in both hands, swinging it forward to try and cut his foe. Gravity Beetle just nearly gets out of the way, losing a couple of fingers as punishment for not moving sooner. Gravity Beetle then landed on the ground and used his gravity powers to propel himself right towards Zero again.

He manages to ram his horn into Zero's gut and pinned him against the corner of the ceiling, remarking as he did so "It's over now, Zero! I'm not going to let you go!" Gravity Beetle started to lift his horn up through Zero's body, but Zero just grinned and remarked with a cool look on his face "Heheh…That's fine, I'll just make my own exit…" With a swift raise of his Z-Saber, Zero cuts off Gravity Beetle's horn with ease, and the Maverick widened his eyes before his body dropped to the ground.

Zero then lifted his left hand up and ripped the broken horn off of his chest, landing on his feet on the ground and quickly throwing the horn out the broken window behind him while Gravity Beetle looks at him with an expression that increasingly grows angrier until the point where he swings his arms out wide and exclaims "GRAVITY WELL!" He throws all of his gravity energy straight towards the ceiling, creating a large black and violet sphere that begins pulling in everything around it save for Gravity Beetle at a rather rapid pace.

Zero quickly responds to the tug on his body by planting his Z-Saber into the ground and using the full extent of his magnetic boots, kneeling down to focus all of his strength into being kept in place. Zero then starts budging forward slowly, dragging his sword through the ground as he inches closer and closer to Gravity Beetle, the roar of his desperate attack ringing in Zero's ears as the Maverick himself remarks "H-How are you not being swallowed up?!"

Zero slowly moves until he's directly in front of Gravity Beetle, where he holds his buster up and begins charging it, aiming at the hole left from the sliced off horn on the Maverick's head before remarking "Because just like you, I'm fighting for a brother-in-arms." He lets loose the energy of his charged shot through the hole in the Maverick's head, causing it to shoot right through the body and hit the critically important parts within, which prevented him from focusing his concentration on the Gravity Well.

The attack broke down, and Gravity Beetle collapsed on his stomach with as much force as he could while Zero was able to stand back upright again without the heavy pressure of gravity working against him. Gravity Beetle, after a few seconds of lying down, started to laugh in a broken down manner, remarking as he lifted his head up slightly "Hehehe…Looks like…You stopped me from making a liar out of myself Zero…"

"What do you mean?" Zero inquired as he placed his deactivated Z-Saber onto his back, and Gravity Beetle responded with "…Now I'll follow my brother…to the junkyard…We'll have stuck together…to the very end…" The Maverick then closes his eyelids and stated "My desire for revenge…has been…quelled…" His voice slowed down to a thin crawl before he shut down entirely.

With Gravity Beetle's demise, Zero closed his eyelids and whispered "I'm sorry it had to be this way, Gravity Beetle…" As much as he didn't want to though, Zero bent down and pulled off part of Gravity Beetle's shell, putting it underneath his right arm so he can give it to X later. He then stood upright and laid a hand on his helmet ready to contact Iris, but as he did so he turned towards the window and saw something that wasn't there. A large tower of smoke was rising in the distance, one clearly formed from a massive explosion.

As Iris contacts him she immediately states _"Zero! I'm glad you contacted me…There's something horrible going on with X! We haven't been able to reach him since he went after Vile, and now the building he was in has blown up!"_ Zero squinted his eyelids and grit his teeth slightly, looking out at the distance and realizing that the explosion in question happened within the part of Doppler Town that fell under diplomatic immunity, and he quickly told Iris "Bring me back to base. There's no way this is going to end well…" After a few seconds, Zero is carried away back to the HQ by the usual beam of light…

 _Next Time: Last Chance for Proof_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Flying Spy of Shadows, Blast Hornet**

With the emergency that Iris brought to his attention, Zero quickly ran his way to the command center once he made it back to the Hunter HQ. Once there he made it over to Iris and Alia's location, and Iris glanced over her left shoulder and remarked "You made it back Zero…Umm, I'll let Alia tell you what's going on since she was watching X." Zero turned to look at Alia, and noticed that she was tapping away at the keyboard while a blanket of static was present on the screen. She looked a bit worried as she went at the keys, but at the same time it looked like little could break her concentration.

"Alia, what's going on with X?" Zero inquired to try and get some answers anyway, followed by Alia flinching in shock before saying to Zero without turning her head to look at him "…I've lost connection to X. I can't reach him with the communicator or anything. I think he ended up going to the lab Vile is holed up in, but now that has blown up within Doppler Town. I-I wish I can get in contact with X soon, otherwise this would mean that he's…"

Zero crossed his arms and remarked quickly "There's no way X died. It's likely the explosion was electrical in nature, so you just have to wait for the interference to stop happening before you can reach him again. We have bigger things to worry about right now…You said the explosion happened within Doppler Town, right?" Iris nodded her head and told Zero afterwards "Yes. Vile's lab was a part of the junkyard within the main part of Doppler Town, meaning the building was covered under the diplomatic immunity."

"Grr…Vile was the one responsible for the explosion, I'm sure of it. But I can see Doppler using his actions to justify starting a war against us." Zero remarked in a worried tone of voice, followed by another voice echoing across the room a moment later _"You're almost right there, Zero!"_ All of a sudden, the computer screen brings up Doppler's face in clear quality, with every other computer screen in the room doing the same while the central hologram projector brings up a giant hologram of Doppler's entire body in view of all present Maverick Hunters.

"W-What?!" Alia remarked in surprise, and she began tapping away at the keyboard in an attempt to find out how Doppler hacked into the servers. Doppler quickly stopped her with an echoing remark of _"Don't bother, you fool. I control all the computers in this room, and I have no intention of being booted out prematurely."_

Zero turned around to face Doppler on the gigantic holographic projector and bluntly asked him "What do you want Doppler?" _"Hehehe…You know exactly what I'm here for Zero. I've been monitoring your progress so far, both yours and X's…But imagine my surprise when I found X wandering around in my territory, and then he decided to blow up one of my laboratories. You Hunters are so desperate to call me a Maverick that you think you can just ignore diplomatic immunity to stop me?"_ Doppler remarked with a bit of an arrogant grin on his face as he also robbed his metallic beard.

"Don't give me that. YOU revived Vile and HE blew up the building. You really think you can get away with trying to frame us for your crimes?" Zero pointed out without taking any of Doppler's words, with Doppler grinning wider and telling Zero afterwards _"You mean like how you've tried to frame me for crimes I have not committed? The same rule applies as always, Zero…You need to have evidence to prove that I have any connection to this 'Vile' Maverick you speak of."_

Zero closed his eyelids slightly and told Doppler with a bothered tone "…So that's why you cut off communication with X, so we wouldn't be able to use Vile as evidence against you." Doppler continued to grin as he held his right hand up beside his face and remarked _"You're quite delusional Zero, and I have no idea what you are talking about. Regardless of your delusions, there's a matter I am going to bring to your attention, and this goes not just for you Zero, but for all Maverick Hunters as well…"_

" _I am currently in the midst of the signing an agreement with the government that will put the remainder of Doppler Town under diplomatic immunity. And with all the footage I have of your actions, I will be able to justify a retaliatory strike against both the Maverick Hunters AND Repliforce."_ Doppler's remark led to Zero gritting his teeth slightly and telling the doctor bluntly "That's not going to happen. I WILL find proof that you are up to no good, Doppler!"

" _Hehehehe…Is that so? You have only thirty minutes until the deal is finalized, Zero, and after that the very humans you want to protect will be your enemies. Enjoy your last moments of freedom, Maverick Hunters…"_ Doppler then swiftly disappears from the hologram projector and the computer screens. Zero lifted his right hand up and clenched his fist, followed by him turning himself around quickly and looked at Iris, telling her quickly "We don't have any time to wait for X to respond. I need to get to the last Reploid and find proof from them, otherwise we're going to be in serious trouble."

"Right! The last Reploid you'll have to meet is Blast Hornet, who is residing in an abandoned Ride Armor facility on the outskirts of town." Iris remarked while quickly pulling the map back up of the facilities, but upon hearing the name of the last Reploid Zero's expression became concerned for a moment before he whispered out their name, causing Iris to glance back and inquire "You know, that name sounds familiar…Do you know who he is, Zero?"

"I'd hope I would still. Blast Hornet is the second-in-command of my unit. He's a very good spy, and has been responsible for taking down a good number of Mavericks. He picked up a lot of the slack left behind when I died, and I thanked him greatly for that when I came back. A few months ago, I got an invitation to Doppler Town, but I decided to use that chance to have Blast Hornet infiltrate the town in my place, and he has been pretending to be a defector from the Hunters this entire time while he tries to find anything that can be used against Doppler." Zero explained in great detail.

"Well that's good then. We shouldn't have to worry about having to fight him then if he's our ally!" Iris exclaimed happily, with a bit of relief in her voice due to how stressful the situation was getting thanks to Doppler's sudden appearance. "Well…We can only hope." Zero remarked, not even taking into consideration the possibility that his ally might also have been affected by the chips Doppler created until Iris brought it up. He looked a bit worried for a moment, only for him to then fold his arms together and remark "Set up the coordinates Iris. I'll head to the facility and try and reach Blast Hornet, and hopefully I'll come back with just the evidence we'll need to finally get the government to realize that Doppler is a Maverick threat."

"Otherwise, the fighting is only going to get worse…" Iris said in a slightly distressed tone, and Zero remarked "X and I AREN'T going to let that happen Iris…Alright, I'm heading out now. Tell X to just wait here until I get back, and then we'll take the fight to Doppler afterwards." With confidence in his voice, Zero then dropped the shell of Gravity Beetle he had kept on him all this time and turned for the door, sprinting his way through the building with steadfast determination until he made it to the teleportation pod and got sent away to the abandoned Ride Armor place in a flash of light.

After a few seconds, Zero is dropped down right into the middle of a large, rusted hallway. The immediate thing that Zero noticed was that the walls and floor were built out of large cubes of crumbled junk, and that there were a couple of doors that were jammed up by a series of broken apart Ride Armors of various designs. Zero drew his Z-Saber and remarked "Time to make my way through…I hope you haven't been forced to become Maverick, Blast Hornet."

Zero runs forward with hesitation, leaping over a couple of steps and dropping down onto the ground with a swift pull from his magnetic boots, which combined with a downward sword slash directly in front of his body allows him to slash one of those purple grenade lobbing Mechaniloids with ease. Zero then ran forward and swung his sword upward with one hand to cut down a grenade at the very tip of his blade, followed by him quickly running at the Mechaniloid that fired upon him and bringing his sword down without missing a beat, taking care of him and clearing the way to the nearby elevator lift.

Zero stands on it and causes it to jerk, showing that it activated as it then lifted up towards the top of the shaft. There were heavy defenses on the way up, as FOUR of those bipedal missile firing Mechaniloids were waiting on the ledges to aim their missiles down at Zero. Throwing his Z-Saber upward with a rapid spin put into it, Zero watches as the missiles are sliced down before they can even get close to him, and once Zero was level with the Mechaniloids he let the sword fall back into his hand so he can perform a quick 360 degree motion of his body and slice down every one of his foes with ease.

The lift then rose up to the top of the room, allowing Zero to get off and make a run for the way ahead of him, eventually make it to a production line that was delivering large parts like copter blades and bug-eyed lens to a mechanical constructor way in the back of the room, and the finished product looked like those insect-like copters that were attacking the Maverick Hunter HQ way back when. "Hmm…So it's an abandoned Ride Armor facility, but it's a perfectly functioning Mechaniloid factory. This isn't going to be overlooked, Doppler…" Zero remarked after a few seconds of observation.

He then leaped down onto the conveyor belts, where the purple grenade launching Mechaniloids were there guarding the construction at work, but Zero ran against the flow of the conveyor and cut down the Mechaniloids in his way while making his way to the other side, where he decided to halt the construction in progress by slicing at the ceiling of the tunnel the parts were coming from to make it so it would collapse and halt the movement of the conveyor belt.

Because if nothing else, at least he can make things easier for his allies if for some reason he fails here today. Zero runs back the other way and leaps down to another conveyor belt, repeating this process three more times until he makes it to the bottom of the room, having perfectly shut down the production line of those copters for the time being. Even so, there was still a good hundred or so of them stored up in the back of the room, but the time it would take for Zero to destroy them all would be wasted if he didn't meet up with Blast Hornet.

With his job done here for now, Zero moved forward through some steel doors, passing by a secluded room before the next set of doors took him to a change of scenery, specifically placing him outside of the Mechaniloid construction facility he was in. Outside though there were dozens of warehouses spread across the wastelands, each one likely housing more secrets that Doppler has kept hidden from the government to avoid suspicion.

Zero was tempted to check the warehouses in front of him, but almost eight minutes have passed since Doppler made the declaration that the diplomatic immunity was about to be registered for the rest of his town and Zero wasn't even certain how much longer he'd have to go to find his ally. So he just grit his teeth and kept going on his way, leaping on top of the first warehouse in front of him since they were just long enough to block the way around. Once on the rooftop Zero leaped his way over to the other side of this area, and after three warehouses were crossed Zero was able to land on the ground and continue on his way.

After a few seconds of running through the remainder of the outdoors, Zero ended up going into another building via some steel doors, ending up in a second secluded room. This time however, the doors locked shut and a holographic projector in the room created a physical hologram shaped like a spiked urchin, and that keeps leaping back and forth off the walls on the room while trying to ram Zero down. Zero just leaps to the left and uses his Z-Saber to slice through the projector while dodging the hologram'.

With the projector destroyed in a single slash, the hologram quickly exploded apart and the doors unlocked, that little distraction leaving Zero's mind as he quickly sprinted for the open doors and moved on deeper into the second building. This place housed even more of those bug-like copters, but it seemed to be a storage place instead of a construction building like the last one was. Zero went across a few conveyor belts on his way down and slew more Mechaniloids, eventually making his way to the bottom floor.

Along the way forward there were some more obstacles in the form of walls of stacked crates, but the marks on the crates signified that they were explosive. Zero stood back and charged up energy to fire upon one of the crates, which causes a swift chain reaction of explosions that take care of the entire stack. Zero leaps across the gap left behind before another crate drops down. Zero uses this method to deal with two more stacks of crates, and after that there was nothing stopping him from making a run to the end of the area, where yet another couple of steel doors and a small passage lead the way to the last room of the building.

This room has a gigantic elevator in it. Zero isn't even given a chance to think about the presence of this elevator before it activates and sends itself rocketing up through the large shaft it inhabited, with Zero forced to kneel down due to the speed of the elevator. After a few seconds of rising up, Zero finds himself on the roof of the building, with the elevator jerking to a stop between a selection of fences and smoke pipes. Zero paused in place and looked up, noticing that the sky was darkened by clouds.

He held his Z-Saber out to the side of him and looked around as lightning came down across the sky, thunder following forth as rain slowly starts to patter down across the area. Zero feels a good brunt of it, but as he did so he noticed something peculiar in the air above him. The rain was falling down around a stealthy figure whose wings flapped rapidly and prevented the moisture from halting it's flight. Zero lifted his head up and remarked "Blast Hornet! I know you're up there, I need to speak with you for a moment."

Blast Hornet complied with the request and began lowering itself from the sky, dropping it's stealth with a wavy effect around it's body, revealing a flying Reploid with four heavily flapping insectoid wings, a head with vents for it's mouth and ears, two drooping metallic antennae, a rounded lower body with what appeared to be metallic eggs kept within, and legs attached to that lower body that had one pointed toe at the end to replace the stinger. It's right arm was a cannon with five holes in it, but his left hand looked relatively normal in appearance. As Blast Hornet lowered itself closer and closer, Zero thought something was up when the Reploid said nothing to him.

"Hey…You don't have to keep up your cover here. It's really important that I talk to you." Zero said as he began to advance towards the Reploid, but then Blast Hornet raised his arm cannon and fired upon Zero with a gatling spread of bullets, forcing Zero to take his sword in front of his body and quickly spin it around in one hand, widening his eyes as he exclaimed to his ally "Blast Hornet! I'm your ally, stand down!" As a bolt of lightning split the skies, Blast Hornet remarked in the voice of a possessed drone "Target's resistance recognized…Elimination mission against target Zero shall require more force…"

Blast Hornet immediately pulled back on his arm cannon with a heavy click coming from his body, and lightning struck down a couple more times as Blast Hornet lifted itself off the ground slightly and remarked "Target is to be eliminated in the name of the Doppler Army. Resistance is futile." Zero grits his teeth and grips onto his Z-Saber with both hands, holding it beside his face as he takes a stance against Blast Hornet, telling him bluntly as he did so "You're better than this Blast Hornet…Don't let Doppler take over your mind like this!"

Blast Hornet did not respond at this point, becoming completely robotic as it swung it's arm cannon up and the holes on it widened open all the way. He then fired a full sized energy sphere from the barrel at Zero, forcing him to leap back and land against the side of the fence, with not even the rain making it slippery enough to prevent Zero from sticking to it with his magnetic boots. The energy sphere explodes with a spread of bullets being sent out across the air, forcing Zero to holding his sword out in front of his body to defend himself.

Some of the bullets strike his legs and arms and damage the metal surface, just not enough to puncture through it at all. Zero then leaps off the fence and tried to attack Blast Hornet, some hesitation on his mind due to being practically forced into this battle against his ally. Blast Hornet flew back in a flash and then swung his right foot out, reacting perfectly to Zero's attack and using the stinger on his foot to deliver a piercing kick into Zero's left shoulder. An inch sized hole was put into the shoulder and Zero was dropped onto the ground from recoil in a matter of seconds.

Zero flips onto his feet by hitting his shoulder against the ground the moment he impacts with it, and afterwards he switches his left arm to it's buster mode and charges it while aiming it up at Blast Hornet. He fires a charged shot, turning all the rain in it's path to steam before it struck Blast Hornet right in his small chest, making him flinch and get pushed back a couple inches, but then he responds to his attack by divebombing Zero and trying to strike him with swift thrusts of his stinger legs.

Zero swung his sword out to match every single one of Blast Hornet's attack, but is forced to walk back with every impact the stinger made against the dull side of his blade. He could not attack in retaliation at the moment seeing how the legs outranged his Z-Saber, not until he lured Blast Hornet towards the fence and made it so one of his thrust stingers get stuck within the fence for a moment. Then with a flip of his sword around so the tip of the blade was pointed at his opponent, Zero stabbed it forward to try and hit Blast Hornet's chest.

But right as the tip of the Z-Saber nicked the chest, Blast Hornet blasted Zero right in the chest with a gatling barrage of bullets from his arm cannon, forcing Zero to retract his sword to block the brunt of the bullets before they could break through his armor. Blast Hornet then ripped his leg from the fence and flew back, swinging up higher into the air and flapping his wings a couple times while he prepared his next move, keeping a constant pressure of bullets from his arm cannon upon Zero while he did so.

Zero looked up at Blast Hornet and swung his sword around once, thinking about how he knew how strong Blast Hornet was, and that he has always considered him to be one of the strongest Maverick Hunters they ever had. "I have to free you from Doppler's control…You've always been the most loyal to the cause, Blast Hornet…" Zero murmured, and as he prepared to leap at Blast Hornet again to try another attack he began to remember one of the last conversations he had with his ally.

" _Sir? What's that you got in your hand?" Months ago, Blast Hornet could be seen speaking with Zero outside of the Maverick Hunter HQ, where Zero was leaning against a wall close to the entrance doors. Zero had a holographic panel gripped in his right hand thanks to the metal plate it was projected from. Zero glanced over at Blast Hornet as he stood on the ground beside him, stating as he did so "I just received this invitation letter from Dr. Doppler to go to that town he's built recently."_

"… _Dr. Doppler? That's the guy you and X have suspected of being a Maverick, right?" Blast Hornet inquired, and Zero looked back at the letter for a moment to remark "Yeah…Honestly, I get the feeling Dr. Doppler is trying to lure me into a trap, but if I went to his town it might be a good chance to quickly get a look at his operations and then report it back to HQ."_

 _Blast Hornet extended a hand out and remarked "With all due respect sir, I'm better suited for spying on others. Let me go in your place to Doppler Town, and I'll manage to convince him to trust me. Then I can report back to you at a later date." Zero glanced at Blast Hornet and quickly remarked "Out of the question. Doppler's incredibly smart…He's Dr. Cain's equal. He'd know something is up right away if you showed up instead of me."_

" _I can play my appearance off as me willingly betraying the Maverick Hunters to get away from the war. I doubt he'd fully trust me off of that, but it'd earn me some time to check things out." Blast Hornet stated to reassure Zero of the idea, followed by Zero folding his arms, holding the letter against his shoulder as he contemplated the idea. He knew of Blast Hornet's strength well enough to be assured that he could get out of Doppler Town safely if something went wrong, but there was also this hesitation on Zero's mind regarding going through with the idea._

 _Closing his eyelids, Zero inquired to his second-in-command "Blast…You know I appreciate how you ran my unit in my absence, so I do also trust your judgment when it comes to something like this…But Doppler is not like the ring-leaders of all those Maverick terrorists you've taken down. He's a lot more subtle in his actions…He knows how to manipulate others, humans and Reploids, into following his insane cause. I've heard a lot from the higher-ups that you are almost in the running to be promoted to an Officer like Signas…You sure you want to risk losing out on that for such a dangerous mission?"_

" _It's because Doppler is this dangerous that I have to go on this mission, sir. The last thing we need is another Sigma in this world." Blast Hornet replied, and Zero was still hesitant about the whole idea. Blast Hornet then said in response to that hesitance "I won't fail you sir…You can be sure of that."_

Back in the present, Zero failed to repel a grenade energy blast from his opponent, finding himself getting slammed against the back of the fence, which is bent a bit out of place upon impact. Zero grits his teeth and opens his eyelids, glaring up at Blast Hornet as he loathes himself a little for making the decision to let his ally come to this town. "This is all my fault…I'm sorry, Blast…" Zero remarked as he pulled himself from the fence and quickly fell to the ground before both of Blast Hornet's stingers could pierce his body.

As Blast Hornet was stuck in the fence with both of his stingers, lightning struck down across the sky twice, with Zero swinging his sword off to the side as he lifted his arm cannon up and prepared to fire upon his ally's underside. Zero hesitated for a moment even though he had a clear shot, regretting the fact that he has to do this, and worst of all even if Blast Hornet had found something to pin Doppler for his crimes it was now too late to get that information from him due to him being mind-controlled into becoming Maverick.

Zero fired his charged shot, but Blast Hornet pulled himself out and the shot just grazed his underside because of that. Blast Hornet then flew back and fired off a series of bombs from his underside in a wave of five towards Zero. Zero leaped back against the fence and stuck to it as the bombs struck the ground and exploded, releasing some robotic hornet drones that quickly fly up after Zero.

Zero in turn climbs his way up the fence with some jumps off of it, using one hand to cut down the drones no matter what direction they come at until he reaches the top, where he looks down at Blast Hornet and boldly leaps his way down to his location. Blast Hornet holds his arm cannon up and prepares to fire a grenade energy blast at Zero. Zero holds his Z-Saber in both of his hands and drops down with as much speed as he can, readying his blade for the moment when he needs to strike.

He held out as long as he had to, but before Blast Hornet fired off an energy blast his way Zero discarded all hesitation and grit his teeth before slashing his Z-Saber down across the lower segment of Blast Hornet's body. He sliced right through it, bombs and all, and lightning strikes down and blankets the two warriors in shadow the moment the blade finished it's motions. Zero fell to the ground and landed on his feet, kneeling forward slightly with a hand on the ground and his blade held out beside him.

His eyelids were closed until he stood upright, at which point he looked up and watched as the bombs all went off within the glass at the same time, destroying all the drones that were kept within and launching the rest of Blast Hornet's body against the fence behind him, with it falling to the ground a moment later. Blast Hornet twitches a little bit with his hand and arm cannon against the ground, his legs barely able to support what little remained of his backside.

Zero held his Z-Saber forward and began to walk towards Blast Hornet, saying to him "…I wish I could have prevented this…Comrade." As Zero raised his sword into the air, Blast Hornet suddenly stated "D-Don't…count me our yet…s-sir…" Zero was caught entirely off-guard by that remark and stopped himself from swinging his sword down.

With widened eyes Zero whispered "N-No way…You're ok?" "Hehe…Relatively…so…All things considered…" Blast Hornet remarked, look back to see the damage Zero had done to his body and saying "You didn't pull any punches sir, thank you for doing that…"

"I didn't want to, but you attacked me out of the blue. What's going on here?" Zero quickly inquired while holding his sword beside his body, followed by Blast Hornet turning back to look at his commanding officer and remarking "It's all Doppler's fault. He's been playing all of us like a fiddle…The attack on our HQ, his diplomatic immunity agreements with the government, inviting Reploids here to find peace…It's all a ruse to cover up his true goals…"

"What? What are his true goals?!" Zero demanded to know due to the urgency of the situation, and Blast Hornet remarked weakly "H-His plan…H-His plan is…IS….Guh…GAAAAAAAH!" All of a sound, pain of an unimaginable sort shoots through Blast Hornet's body, causing him to lurch upright with his left hand against the ground and his arm cannon slowly rising up again. Zero knew that Doppler was once again trying to force Blast Hornet under his control.

"No! You have to resist his influence! You can't let him win, Blast Hornet!" Zero urged his ally with all of his confidence his capabilities, with Blast Hornet grunting in pain to resist while his arm cannon twitched halfway raised towards Zero. He remarked as he resisted having his body controlled "I-I'm not going to go down this easily…Not again! S-Sir…The truth that Doppler is hiding…Is that…"

As Blast Hornet's arm cannon was pointed at Zero, Zero raised his Z-Saber ready to defend himself just in case. Blast Hornet did his best to quickly explain "He…He put a chip…In the body of every Reploid or Maverick that came to his town! With a push of a button, he can control any one of them…A-And make them go Maverick! H-He's building an army…An army big enough to overthrow the humans and Reploids!"

"And he implanted a chip into your body?! Hang on! I'll contact HQ and have the-" "NO!" Blast Hornet suddenly exclaimed to cut Zero off as he began to raise his hand towards his helmet, and Blast Hornet quickly exclaimed himself with "I-I can't let you do that sir…I'm too much…too much of a threat…Y-You have to remove the chip…Directly from my core unit…"

"Out of the question! You'll shut down if I affect your core unit in any way! You have to just hold out! We can make it back, I promise!" Zero exclaimed, denying Blast Hornet's request out of the respect he had for his ally. Blast Hornet's arm cannon began to charge slightly, leading to him remarking as Zero was shown not having the willingness to take the chip out of his body "I-I-I s-see…"

With his arm cannon twitching some more, Blast Hornet looked Zero straight in the eyes and stated with a peaceful tone "…Sir…It's been an honor to be your second-in-command…" Zero widened his eyes, but what happened next went by so quickly that it took a while for him to comprehend it. Blast Hornet put all of his remaining energy into forcing his arm cannon onto the ground, simultaneously lifting his left hand off the ground and plunging it right into his own chest thanks to the scar Zero had created earlier.

"N-NO!" Zero exclaimed once the realization of what happened occurred before him. He couldn't stop Blast Hornet now without greatly harming his body, but as lightning flashed one more time Blast Hornet quietly closed his eyelids and accepted the end of his life right as he pulled the his core unit right out from his body, wires and all. His body immediately shut down once the core escaped his chest, and he collapsed onto the wet ground a moment later.

Zero just stood there and paused with a look of absolute defeat on his face before collapsing onto his knees and looking down at his fallen comrade, the core loosely held in his hand. Zero dropped his Z-Saber temporarily and pulled the core from his grip, looking it over slowly and noticing the small chip attached to it in a matter of seconds. Sure enough, Zero could just make out the insignia of Dr. Doppler on said chip.

With his body trembling from what it cost just to get the one piece of evidence needed to prove Doppler's guilt, Zero held the core unit in as tight of a grip as he could without crushing it and looked at Blast Hornet, telling him as he picked up and sheathed his Z-Saber while rising to his feet "…You were a good Maverick Hunter…And a good ally…I promise, I'm not going to let this be the end of your life. And if not…Then I will make Doppler pay. He will stopped, no matter the cost!" Zero's vow was punctuated by him tightly clenching his left fist and gritting his teeth in pure rage towards Doppler…

 _Next Time: The Ultimate Combination, Bit AND Byte_


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Attack on Doppler Town I: The Godkarmachine**

Back at the Maverick Hunter HQ, X has long since returned from facing Neon Tiger and Vile, and he was in the middle of watching Zero face Blast Hornet. But it wasn't very long until suddenly the holographic projector in the middle of the room turned on against anyone's will, with the grid of the government figures and Dr. Cain appearing, this time with a projection of Dr. Doppler's face on one of those holographic squares appearing as well. _"Maverick Hunters! There is something we must address to you at this very moment. Halt whatever work it is you're doing and pay attention to what we have to say."_ One of the government figures remarked.

X, Alia and Iris turned to look at the holographic projection, with everyone else in the room doing the same. Another government figure mentioned to the Hunters as Doppler grinned in anticipation _"We are here to have you witness the moment that we fully sign off on diplomatic immunity for Doppler Town. With this, you can be rest assured that we will take efforts to make sure that less and less Reploids will become Maverick."_ As X, Alia and Iris expressed concern with differing expressions, Doppler chuckled happily and said _"I am honored to be a part of this deal."_

X grit his teeth slightly and clenched his fists, hoping that Zero would make it in time to stop this madness. His wishes were swiftly answered, as Zero forced the doors open with a hard thud and exclaimed "Stop the deal! Doppler is guilty!" Zero was carrying the remains of Blast Hornet's body over his shoulders as he ran into the room, the core of his body under his right arm as well. He then stood in front of the holographic projector as one of the government figures sighed and stated _"…Are you going to waste our time again? Unless you have evidence…"_

Zero placed Blast Hornet's body on the ground without hesitation and swung the core up in the grip of his right hand, looking rather annoyed as he exclaimed "You want evidence?! Here it is! This is the evidence that implicates Doppler for his crimes!" The figures on screen pause and look at the core for a moment, with Doppler in particular looking unconcerned. One of the government figures said to Zero _"You expect us to believe that a Reploid's core unit is enough evidence?"_

"It's not the core unit I want you to look at. It's the chip attached to it." Zero said, trying to keep his cool to better get his point across. Doppler's holographic form suddenly raised one of his eyebrows and remarked _"A chip you say? …Zero, send the chip to my location, I want to look at it for a moment." "Dr. Cain, this is a waste of time…"_ One of the more feminine government figures remarked.

Zero ignored the comment of the government figure made and walked over to the console, using a pad on it to teleport both the core and chip over to Dr. Cain's location, while Doppler still looked completely calm. But as Doppler was remaining calm, Alia kept typing away at her keyboard while murmuring "You aren't getting away with this one Doppler…" After a few seconds, Dr. Cain receives the core and chip, using a pair of robotic arms attached to his projection pod to pick it up and take a look at it while Doppler briefly flinched with a surprised look on his face.

Cain examined the chip in particular for just a little bit, humming in intrigue before he remarked _"…Zero, this chip feels as though it's too low-grade to be something Doppler could have made."_ Zero and X both widened their eyes and thought that such an analysis was impossible, and Doppler could only grin and remark _"As it was said…This was a waste of time, Zero."_

Dr. Cain closed his eyelids and then remarked _"…Of course, I do believe I recall teaching you that there's nothing wrong with creating low-grade technology, Doppler. Not to mention your insignia is attached to this chip…Zero, what is going on here?"_ The moment Cain showed suspicion towards Doppler's chip and asked Zero that question, Doppler subtly scowled. Zero glanced at X and said to him "You can go first X. Lets start from the beginning."

X glanced at Dr. Cain and the government figures and remarked "We've been investigating the facilities on the outer part of Doppler Town since they weren't diplomatically immune yet. First I met up with Blizzard Buffalo, who did seem genuinely happy at Doppler Town at first until he all of a sudden went Maverick. He mentioned something about getting something that would prevent him from going Maverick, specifically from Dr. Doppler." Zero then folded his arms together and remarked "Doppler also willingly invited a Maverick criminal named Toxic Seahorse, who was planning to poison the dam close to Doppler Town."

"Then there's Tunnel Rhino, who was a well-known digger…He had also been forced to become Maverick. Volt Catfish, a friend of mine, was tricked by Doppler to come to Doppler Town, where he was also made to become Maverick." X added on without hesitation, followed by Zero mentioning "Then there's Crush Crawfish, a known criminally insane Maverick…And Doppler clearly had him in charge of his submarines."

"Neon Tiger was made a Maverick too." X said, followed by Zero remarking "Gravity Beetle and Blast Hornet, both proud Hunters, were made to go Maverick thanks to Doppler. Any instance where a Reploid was not already a Maverick…It was all because Doppler implanted the very chip I just gave to Dr. Cain into their bodies and forced them to be under his control."

" _And how exactly can you prove that those chips do that?"_ Doppler remarked while gritting his teeth slightly and having a tone of annoyance at the situation. Zero bluntly pointed a finger down at Blast Hornet's body and exclaimed "Is my ally's dead body not good enough?! I was forced to kill him because YOU placed one of those chips inside of his body! He was never a Maverick until he went to Doppler Town, he never had a chip in his body until you placed it there! How DARE you try to worm your way out of this one, Doppler!"

" _This is ludicrous! I am completely without fault here! Leaders of the human world, you must realize that these two silly Hunters intruded upon my property…I told you how they blew up one of my research facilities and damaged my property, and now they have the gall to accuse me of criminal activities? I am but a kindly Reploid who has wanted nothing more than to help this world."_ The very moment Doppler finished speaking, to the surprise of everyone involved it was Iris who suddenly spoke out against him and said "Then why do you need an army?!"

" _I beg your pardon?"_ Doppler said while gritting his teeth a little, and Iris quickly pulled her chair away from the computer before showing the government figures a series of images she had collected throughout X and Zero's missions, showing off the stuff like the Mechaniloids being created, the submarines Zero had mentioned earlier, and various other things. After that, Iris showed footage of Zero's battle with Blast Hornet, specifically the part where the Doppler Army was mentioned, and went on to say "Why would a Reploid trying to keep other Reploids away from a war need an army of his own? You aren't trying to protect anyone Doppler! You just want to turn the Reploids you lure to your town against the humans, against us! You're not savior Doppler…You're nothing more than a fraud!"

" _Silence girl! Have you heard nothing of deterrents?!"_ Doppler tried to defend himself, but let a little of his anger go through. This time it was Alia who came in defense of Iris' words, remarking bluntly to Doppler "So did you revive the criminal Vile to act as your deterrent as well? Were Bit and Byte hired to act as deterrents? No Doppler…You've been using all three of them to make sure X and Zero wouldn't eventually find out the truth about what you've been doing."

"… _What's this about Vile being revived?"_ One of the government figures took interest in that part of the conversation in particular, and before Doppler could weasel his way out of that one X explained "Vile was revived by Doppler. He and I fought at the facility that blew up within Doppler Town…But it was Vile who was responsible for it's destruction, not me or Zero. I had no idea the building was in the diplomatically immune part of town, since I went there via a teleportation capsule in Neon Tiger's reserve."

" _Then that means…"_ The government figures were at the point where Doppler's lies held little wait, and Doppler quickly began to realize that. For the coup de grace though, Alia pulled away from her computer screen and revealed a lot of data she had compiled, stating to the government "To top it off, I just finished intercepting an attempt by Doppler to directly hack our teleporting systems so Zero wouldn't be able to hand the chip off to Dr. Cain. He's trying to cover his tracks at this point, basically…"

Zero and X both glared at Doppler directly, with Zero saying to him "It's over Doppler." "You've lost." X followed up with, the bluntness in their voice further emphasizing just how confident they were in their victory. And by all means, they had earned the right to this victory after all they had to do, and it seems the government agreed on such as one of the figures quickly remarked _"…It seems as though the evidence speaks very much on your true character, Doppler. In light of this new evidence, we will have to revoke our deals immediately and label you a Maverick."_

Zero and X relax themselves at that moment, letting out a sigh of relief before X in particular remarked "…We did it Zero…" But as Zero pointed out as he lifted his head up to look at the rather eerie grin on Doppler's face "But it's nowhere near over yet X. We may have stopped his diplomatic immunity…But it seems Doppler still has something up his sleeve."

" _Hehehe…Right you are Zero. You really think that by getting rid of my diplomatic immunity that I am just going to accept my fate?! No…It just means I'll have to move my plans ahead of schedule."_ Doppler said, his voice becoming rather cold and callous as he put an unnatural grin on his face and then remarked _"Tell me…Do you remember the device the X-Hunters were going to use against your HQ?"_

"What?!" Everyone, government figures and Dr. Cain included, show shock at Doppler mentioning this, followed by Doppler telling them all while laughing calmly _"I took it upon myself to take the technology they used and incorporated it secretly into all the facilities you've been investigating, X and Zero. With eight conduits to use simultaneously, all I have to do is power the systems and before long I will create a shockwave that will spread across the very continent, forcing all Reploids to become Mavericks regardless of whether they carry my special chip or not!"_

"The whole continent? That'll turn millions of Reploids into Mavericks!" X remarked in stunned disbelief, and Dr. Cain bluntly exclaimed _"Doppler! Stop this insanity! This isn't like you at all! Why have you chosen to go Maverick?!" "It's the logical choice in this world, my dear, dear friend! I will subjugate humanity and create a Reploid paradise with what remains of the planet, and then that will be the end of all wars! Hehehehe…HEHEHEHEHEHE! Try and stop me if you want, Maverick Hunters…But not even your forces will be able to match the might of the army I've built to defend the conduits!"_

Doppler quickly shut off his holographic screen, with the government looking rather panicked now that Doppler has given his ultimatum. Amidst their panic, Dr. Cain suddenly exclaimed _"Pull yourselves together! This is no time to panic!"_ The government silenced themselves, and Dr. Cain suddenly turned to look at X and Zero and told them _"X, Zero…If the Maverick Hunters and Repliforce pool their forces together, we should be able to handle the conduits with minimal causalities. While we do that, you two need to infiltrate Doppler's main laboratory and put an end to whatever other madness he has planned!"_

"We don't really have any other choice at this point, do we? We'll stop Doppler for good Dr. Cain, you can count on that." X commented with a confident look on his face, and Dr. Cain remarked after letting out a temporary sigh _"…Once more, I have lost a close friend to this Maverick insanity…"_

"Are you going to be ok doctor?" Zero inquired empathetically, and Dr. Cain stared at Zero and said to him _"Do not be concerned about me Zero…You need to remain the utmost focused on this mission."_ "We won't let you down Dr. Cain." X stated with confidence again before he and Zero turned around.

Alia and Iris looked at the two, with Alia remarking bluntly "Doppler won't be holding anything back with his defenses…Bit, Byte, Vile…they are all going to be there waiting for you two to show up." Iris happily told Zero as she laid a hand against her communicator "We'll be providing support to the very end Zero, so please make it back safely!"

"We're not going let Doppler stop us, but thanks for the concern Iris…Alright X, lets get going!" Zero exclaimed after acknowledging Iris' remark, but before him and X made their way to the teleporting capsules X turned back around for a moment and laid a hand on Blast Hornet's body to take his power, causing his armor to change to a combination of yellow and white for a moment. X then stood upright and remarked "Ok, now we're good to go…" before him and Zero made their way to the room, getting into the capsules and after a few seconds they are simultaneously sent off to Doppler's laboratory to confront the madman once and for all…

It didn't take long for X and Zero to be dropped down inside of Doppler's laboratory, landing close to the entrance of the place with their arm cannon and Z-Saber respectively at the ready. It was a good thing they did that too, as Doppler already had a welcoming party ready in wait for them in the form of roughly five of those bipedal red missile launching Mechaniloids and five of those purple grenade lobbers. All ten Mechaniloids fire upon X and Zero, with X quickly working up a charged shot to shoot down the grenades while Zero ran forward and widely swung his Z-Saber out to cut down the missiles.

X then leaped off of Zero's back as he lurched forward from the sword swing and switched to Gravity Beetle's colors, a combination of violet and beige, and fires off a black and purple lightning sphere towards the ten gathered foes. An abundance of heavy gravity rips apart the Mechaniloids and drags them to their destruction quickly within the Gravity Well, and it vanishes upon X's command once he lands on the ground. "I knew he wasn't going to go easy on us…" X remarked as he gripped his arm cannon, and Zero replied as he stood up and swung his Z-Saber out beside him "Good…Cause we aren't either."

Before they get a move on, Alia and Iris contact them at the same time, causing them to pause and answer the call, with Alia remarking to them both _"I just received word from Signas and Colonel that they already have an air fleet rallied and ready to attack the conduits. Turns out Dr. Cain was suspicious of Doppler's behavior the whole time and had planned to launch an attack on Doppler Town once any evidence sprung forth. He had faith in all of us you two, even if it wasn't obvious from the start…"_

"Dr. Cain…" X was surprised to hear this from Alia, and Zero remarked in turn "So that means Signas and Colonel will get here soon?" _"Yes! The air fleet will be led by Repliforce Air Division Leader Storm Owl, while my brother and Officer Signas will lead a ground assault. Jet Stingray of Repliforce has the waterways covered, and Alia is going to prevent any teleporters from operating…Doppler is pinned in, now it's just up to you two to stop him before he can hurt anyone else!"_

After Iris finished informing the two of the whole situation, X smiled and said "This is going to be everyone's victory here today. We stop Doppler, we'll be that much closer to ending the Maverick threat." Zero glanced at X and told him "But we can't get too overconfident X. Lets go!" X nodded his head in agreement and the two turned around and began their advance through Doppler's laboratory. They noticed that beyond the walls to the left and right of them were piles of scrapped Mechaniloids, the pile still growing larger with every second due to a tube depositing parts from above.

The duo were disgusted by what Doppler was doing to all the Mechaniloids he acquired, but he already had more than enough crimes piled onto him to justify his destruction, so the two lingered on this matter for only a bit before encountered a set of turrets popping out from the ceiling. They fired electric shots at the two, but X took the front and quickly switched to Blizzard Buffalo's colors while having energy charged up. He used the Frost Shield to protect himself and Zero until there was an interval between shots for Zero to leap out beside X and use his sword to cut through the turrets, hitting them even when they retracted into the ceiling due to the long reach of his blade.

Once on the ground Zero made his way over to the nearby ladder and climbed it, with X dropping the Frost Shield onto the ground and following close behind. The two then make their way up to the next floor by wall jumping, with Zero cutting down a couple more Mechaniloids in the process. The two then sprint towards a seemingly harmless hallway, with only a spike ceiling that was way too high to reach unless they were knocked up into it being in the way at the moment.

But not long after moving forward, a part of the ceiling comes down partway to try and catch the two of guard before they planned to leap over a nearby gap. With that effort to surprise them having failed, the duo nodded at each other and proceeded with caution through the rest of the hallway. X took the lead and used the Tornado Fang from Tunnel Rhino to take down whatever Mechaniloids planned to snipe them from the platforms, but when he went ahead too far too quickly a ceiling came down prepared to impale his head.

Zero reacted to this by throwing his Z-Saber out like a boomerang, slicing through the spikes and giving X enough room to make the jump with the top of his helmet just nicking the bare ceiling in the process. X lands on the ground next to Zero's sword and picks it up as his ally makes the leap, looking a little embarrassed as he turns around and hands it back to him, but Zero just smiled slightly and was willing to look past the error since they survived. The duo then ran on unopposed by any Mechaniloids as they found another ladder and scaled it to the next obstacle.

Once past the ladder, one of the walls began to close in on the duo, forcing them to quickly scale their way to the top of the shaft before they are crushed. It was nothing more than a simple scaling challenge for them in the end, and they make it to the top right as the last wall slammed into place, sealing the way behind them. Not that such a thing mattered, as the duo had no intention of going back until this was all over. The two moved on, and crossed one of those Mechaniloids with those spiked balls on it's shoulders.

Zero took the lead this time and swung his Z-Saber forward to block one of the spiked balls as it's fired out, and while he's pushed back X swings around his friend's body and prepared a charged shot, thrusting his arm cannon out and letting go of the charged shot to obliterate the Mechaniloid with the large and four small shots that come out, blowing a hole through the wall behind it at the same time. With another enemy down, the duo climbed up to the next floor and moved on to a small secluded hallway past some steel doors.

There was another spiked ceiling in this room, but at the moment it didn't seem to want to come down. There was also a larger Mechaniloid in this room than usual, this one having thick bipedal legs that also operated as pistons, three steel-toed feet, a dinosaur-like fanged face, and a standard Reploid piloting it. Once X and Zero were fully situated in the room, the ceiling trembled and began to descend upon them, making it clear that the enemy before them had to be defeated before they were crushed.

The ceiling moved in intervals, but Zero noticed something on the other side of the room and said "I think I can stop the ceiling. I'll leave the Mechaniloid to you while I try this out, X." Zero then dashed forward past the Mechaniloid with X giving him a faithful nod of the head, switching to Neon Tiger's colors and holding both of his arm cannons up as the Mechaniloid opened his mouth open and prepared to fire upon X with powerful red bullets, only for the first impact to not even dent X's armored chest and simultaneously activate the shield to protect him from any further attacks.

X grinned slightly and then fired two waves of Ray Splashers upon the Mechaniloid, bombarding it with hundreds of tiny sparkle bombs that explode upon it's armor and quickly obliterate it, removing the need for Zero to even begin tampering with the controls for the spiked ceiling. X switched back to his normal colors and then met back up with Zero, who quietly remarked "Never mind…" before he opened the doors out of this room and the duo continued on their way.

Another spiked shoulder Mechaniloid was in the way, but the two just used the same method as before to deal with before scaling a couple walls to make it to what appeared to be the top of this current part of the laboratory. The way down had many wall-crawling Mechaniloids that filled the air with electric spheres, but from up above X decided to try out the weapon he got from Blast Hornet, charging it up and causing a series of targets to appear in his vision, and once he had locked on to every Mechaniloid he threw a bomb out that exploded and sent out enough mechanical hornets to fly through the air and latch onto the Mechaniloids.

The hornets then blow up and clear the way forward, with X and Zero making a big enough leap to land down at the very bottom of the gigantic steps, though the heavy fall did shake their legs a little once they did so. They were quickly fired upon by a marching group of screwdriver head Mechaniloids, with Zero swinging in front of X and holding his Z-Saber out to hold the projectiles off while X prepared a regular charged shot to shoot over Zero's head and take down the group save for one, who had enough intelligence to duck down.

However, Zero just cut this one down with a downward stroke of his blade, and the duo moved on without any further delay. Dropping down a small shaft, the two inadvertently end up in the junk piles Doppler has been building up within his laboratory. Now the tubes were dropping spiked balls into the area, with the ramps rolling them down to the duo's locations. The two leaped over them in tandem and blew up the drilling walls in the way until they made it through this horrible junkyard, dropping down a shaft and ending up in front of another set of steel doors.

X and Zero had a good idea of what to expect once they made it through the passage beyond those doors, but bravely went on ahead without hesitation. Once there, the duo find themselves in a more wide-open room than what they had been dealing with so far, complete bright lights and a large glass pane revealing the chaos going on outside. With the rain still falling from earlier, there was still a clear view of an armada of powerful airships going on the assault of Doppler Town, with Doppler swarming the ships with his own armada of battleships and insect copters.

"Looks like they are handling things well on the outside…" Zero commented on as he held his sword beside his body and glanced that way, but then he and X both sensed a tinge of lightning in the air and turned on ahead to see the foes they had to face there. As the duo suspected, it was Bit and Byte once more, both of them coming into the area while riding on a cloud Byte created from the bottom of his feet. Bit had his arms folded against his chest and a glare focused entirely on X, while Byte smiled at Zero and nodded his head respectfully.

Once close to the ground, Byte pulled his pike up and dispelled the cloud, the two of them landing on the ground and looking at X and Zero, with Bit starting off the conversation by remarking "So you ended up finding some evidence to implicate the doctor after all. Hmph, I would've done it much sooner." X quickly glared at Bit and remarked "So you're getting in our way again, Bit."

"Didn't the two of you do your jobs already by checking on us so you could give data to Doppler?" Zero inquired to Byte in particular, and with a respectful nod of his head against Byte calmly stated "We have done our job, yes…But Doppler it seems did not wish to see us leave his sights yet, as he quickly hired us back to do something else for him."

"He wants you both to stop us from reaching him, doesn't he? He must be getting pretty worried about us…" Zero remarked afterwards, but Bit glared at him and said "Don't get that arrogant Zero. He said that he'd rather not waste his time with you both, so he sent us to deal with you instead." "You don't have to do this you know. If you just walk away, then you can survive this mess and live another day. Doppler's the criminal here, you don't have to accept whatever money he's giving you!" X bluntly pointed out.

"We always finish our job, regardless of the client. To ask us to stop what we do is the equivalent of spitting in our faces, Maverick Hunter X!" Bit remarked in a sincerely offended tone of voice, and Zero pointed out "Then you're ok with this Byte? When you still haven't found your answer?"

Byte laid his pike down on the ground and said "You make it sound like this is the end of my journey…The beginning of one journey, always happens at the end of another. If I do not find my answer here, then there's always next time…" "But for now, we're going to stop you from advancing further. Brother, it's time for Advance Combination: Inary!" Bit exclaimed, and without a single word Byte nodded his head and clapped his hands together.

An echoing sound of thunder roared through the room as lightning struck both Bit and Byte, the entire room rumbling as their bodies becoming bright white and start pushing together towards one another. The two whirl together into a mass of white energy that grows out to form a new creature entirely. After a few seconds the energy disperses like a gale of wind, leaving behind only a glorious being. This creature combined the traits of both Bit and Byte while adding in new flourishes to it's form…

Byte's body had been converted into the four-clawed wolf, complete with ravaging claws and even thicker legs. Where Byte's head used to be now was a cylinder of pure iron connecting that lower body to the upper body of Bit, which had now grown in size to accommodate the size of this new creature. The fingers of the machine's four hands were now tipped with lead nails, with the ring on Byte's back now standing upright on the back of this creature's shoulders, with eight conductor spikes sticking out around the edge. Finally there were the creature's two heads, the first being Byte's head now taking on a red color and having the expression befitting an untamed, beastly war god, and then there was Bit's head on top of, which has been transformed into that of a fearsome and savage wolf, complete with piercing slits for red eyes.

This combination of Bit and Byte opened their mouths and spoke to the surprised X and Zero in a voice that fused the two's together and gave it a majestic echo "WE…Are the Godkarmachine O Inary! The messenger of heaven…the gatekeeper of hell! We exist in a perfect balance, a machine that cannot be stopped or conquered. Do you want to stand and face me still, Maverick Hunters X and Zero?!"The duo did not hesitate to nod their heads at each other before facing the Godkarmachine with their weapons drawn. Nothing could stop them at this point, not even this supposed 'ultimate combination' that towered over them.

For the beginning of the battle, the Godkarmachine pinched it's thumbs and pointer fingers together and then snapped them one at the time, causing lightning to strike down across the battlefield, specifically close to where X and Zero were positioned. They were forced to split off from one another to get away from the lightning, leaving the hands who had snapped their fingers to then detach from the arms and fire forth while they were clenched into fists. X gets punched in the gut with one punch, but when the shield pops up for the second one flicks it's fingers against the barrier and causes a larger lightning bolt to come down and crash upon the shield to break through it and smite X slightly.

"G-Ghhh!" X grunted in pain as the lightning made his body twitched, which distracted Zero a little as he ran forward and alternated the side of his body he swung his sword on to deflect the punches coming his way. Though it was only a second he was distracted for, which just gave the Godkarmachine time to bring all four of it's fists together around Zero's body. The fists all then open up and release a blast of electricity upon Zero before he could leap out of the way, the only thing saving him from taking heavy damage was X leaping directly next to Zero and activating Triad Thunder to create the necessary protective pyramid.

The lightning erupted into a heavy pillar around the pyramid, but during the fading of lightning X quickly charged up energy in his buster and fired a charged shot right at the Godkarmachine's chest, which dealt a direct hit and made it stumble back a couple inches. The machine attached his hands back against it's arms and then clapped them together in front of it's body, splitting them apart a moment later with electricity streaming between the palms, all of it hardening into four lances of pure lightning that the Godkarmachine grasps tightly.

The Godkarmachine swings a couple of those lances down at Zero and X, but Zero is able to bring his Z-Saber up to defend against the attacks regardless of how huge the lances were. He repelled the lances for a few seconds while X charged both of his arm cannons up and fired two huge buster shots at the machine, with the Godkarmachine having to use a couple of it's lances to block the charged shot. The left side of the machine was now vulnerable, and Zero sprinted past the other two lances and swung his Z-Saber along the left side of the Godkarmachine's body, putting a large glowing slash mark into the metal through both of it's legs and the body itself.

Zero then quickly turns around and is hit in the chest by a backhanded swing of the lance, knocking Zero back and sending him headfirst into the nearby wall. Zero grit his teeth upon impact and began falling to the ground, with X running over to the wall and grabbing his ally as he fell before the Godkarmachine could impale him with all four of it's lances. X then leaped up the wall while carrying Zero for a bit, and he switched to Tunnel Rhino's colors and began charging energy as the machine tried to thrust the lances forward.

Once the attack was charged, X leaped forward while still carrying Zero in one arm and used the charged Tornado Fang to turn his right arm into the drill, thrusting himself as fast as he could through the air by using his Air Dash boots to push himself in combination with leaping off of the wall. The drill collides with the four lances of lightning as the Godkarmachine turns itself around and raises them in front of it's body, but with the heavy rotation of the drill it only takes mere seconds of X to break the lances up and strike the machine's chest.

He drills at it for a few seconds and manages to dig into the metal just a little bit and created enough force to push the machine along the ground, ending with X retracting the drill and then landing on the back of the Godkarmachine's body. Zero then starts flinching a bit, making X decide to let go of him so he could stand on his feet and contribute to the battle once more. While X dropped Zero off on the ground, the Godkarmachine lifted it's upper right hand as high as it could and materialized a larger version of Bit's beam katana into his grasp.

He swung the katana horizontally towards X, sending out a beam wave at X, which lashed against his arm cannon and chest and put a slight slit into his armor while simultaneously knocking him back. X ends up off the back of the Godkarmachine, but because the machine was distracted with X…Zero was able to wake up and immediately stab his Z-Saber through the center of the Godkarmachine's lower body. Zero then lifts his sword up while it was gripped in both hands and after a little bit of a struggle he rips through the metal of the machine and puts a large gash into it's backside.

The Godkarmachine immediately reacted by using the jets on it's legs to lift itself off the ground and then flip it's lower body back around, followed by it thrusting itself backwards and putting itself out of reach of Zero's blade. While it was floating in the air, it summoned another copy of Bit's katana and began rapidly swinging them out, sending waves of beam energy down at the duo of Hunters. Zero is able to cut the waves down, but X had to leap and slide over them, the waves impacting the ground and breaking it apart to make the battlefield more uneven to navigate.

X kneeled down on the ground and aimed his arm cannons at the Godkarmachine, firing upon it with a couple charged shots, both of which are cut down with ease with the beam katanas. The machine then raised it's sword in front of the ring on it's back, and lightning shot through the nearby window and attracted itself to the ring, which then focused the lightning into the katanas to increase their power greatly. The Godkarmachine then swung his katans out, grinding the energy against it's other to generate even more electricity and greatly increase the size of the attack it was about to unleash.

It fired off a large "X" shaped burst of electricity through the air, and it plummeted rapidly through the air and crashed down directly upon X and Zero before they could get out of the way. The ground is torn apart in a violent manner and X and Zero are flung to the back of the room with plenty of debris following them. An "X" mark is left in the ground, with it sparking occasionally as the Godkarmachine looks down and knows that his opponents had to have survived that attack. Therefore, it raises it's katanas up again and prepared for another attack.

X and Zero find themselves sitting with their backs against the wall, some decent damage done to their bodies from that last attack while their armor was scuffed by the dirt raised up and the rocks that flew against their arms and legs. But they start to stand up in a few seconds and look up at the Godkarmachine, realizing that as of now the machine could not move whole it was preparing it's attack. Zero then slightly glanced at X and said "You thinking what I'm thinking, X?"

X nodded his head and remarked "We only have one shot at this. Lets do it Zero." He kept quiet enough that the Godkarmachine could not hear him, and then he ran to the hill built by the debris and held his arms down in front of his waist while kneeling down slightly. Zero ran forward and leaped onto X's hands, promptly being flung into the air as Zero gripped his Z-Saber in both hands and charged it up with all of his strength. As the Godkarmachine prepared to swing it's katanas downward, Zero brought his Z-Saber down with all of his might, ripping through the center of the katanas and all of the energy built up within, simultaneously cutting a large gash down the center of the machine's large body.

Zero landed on the ground and then flipped back, exclaiming as he did so "X, now!" As Zero did his part, X had been busy scaling the wall close to the piled up debris while charging up another Tornado Fang. He leaped right off the wall and thrust himself forward, using both the Air Dash and the propulsion of the charged drill to make his way over to the levitating Godkarmachine, where his drill dug into the gash Zero had created earlier and ripped apart the internal machinery, quickly tearing it down until the two halves were split apart from one another.

X immediately dropped to the ground after that while returning to his original colors, and him and Zero stepped back as the two halves of the Godkarmachine crashed against the ground. After a few seconds of the machine letting out a pitiful whimper, the two halves glowed and then went back to being the bodies that composed it. Byte was now sliced in half horizontally, while Bit had a large gash from the top of his face to the bottom of his waist. Both of them groaned in pain, and X and Zero ran over to check on them. Bit remarked in a slightly bothered tone "G-Gah…We…We lost? I thought…The Godkarmachine…Was invincible…"

"…Hehehe…Nothing is…ever invincible…brother…We…We appropriately met our match today." Byte remarked, glancing at X and saying to him "After all…Your name stands for infinite potential, does it not…Maverick Hunter X?" X widened his eyes in surprise to hear that, and remarked to Byte "H-How did you know that?"

"…Doppler…Told us…He's done his share of research on you it seems…Both you and Zero…Hehehe, he's quite fascinated with you two, perhaps to the point of jealousy…" Byte remarked, but then proceeded to cough up some oil from his mouth, showing just how damaged his body truly was. Zero then looked at Byte and said "…I know this is probably stupid to ask…But how are you feeling, Byte?"

"I…I feel warm…Is this what death feels like? It's funny…I expected a cold embrace, from what I heard of humans deaths…I guess in the end though, we aren't the same as humans…At least not all the way. Hehehe…So there is likely no afterlife for us Reploids…That's not the answer I wanted, I suppose, but…At the same time, I'm not angry to be wrong…" Byte remarked, a smile crossing his face as he just laughed at his inevitable demise, leading to Bit doing what he could to turn his head and remark "S-Shut up brother…We're not…Not going to die here…"

"Bit…It's ok to accept what's coming to us…We lived decent lives…I just wish we could have thanked our old employer…For saving us from being decommissioned…" Byte remarked, and Bit relaxed a hand atop his scarred body and remarked "…Heh…Hehehe…Yeah, I suppose we have owed that idiot a few thanks…"

X looked down at Bit and said his name in a melancholic tone, and Bit bluntly replied with "D-Don't…Give me…your pity…We did our jobs…We aren't…Ashamed of anything we've done…You two…Just need to get going…And stop…Doppler…" X did not feel happy with the idea of leaving them behind to die like this, but Zero quickly looked at his partner and remarked "He's right. There's nothing we can do for them now X. Doppler is still out there…And so is Vile. We have to keep going."

"R-Right…" X said with a degree of hesitation, and he stood upright and turned himself around, noticing a door behind the debris from earlier that would lead further on into the laboratory. Him and Zero prepared to head on their way, but before they made it to the door Zero glanced over his should and looked at Byte in particular, letting out a quiet sigh before he followed X through the door. Bit and Byte, with their grievous wounds, perished only a few seconds later, though at least they died with the solace that they were together in their final moments…

 _Next Time: End of a Legacy_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Attack on Doppler Town II: Cain and Doppler**

In the next part of Doppler's laboratory, some Mechaniloids were wandering through a windowed hallway on patrol for X and Zero's next appearance. It doesn't take very long for the door at the start of the hallway to explode and a charged shot to go flying through, annihilating two of the Mechaniloids while Zero leaps out of the explosion and uses his Z-Saber to cut and then through two separate Mechaniloids in rapid succession. X then ran into the hallway and stood beside Zero, examining the area around them closely for a few seconds.

It seems as though someone else had already gotten to this part of the laboratory, as the area was heavily damaged all-around, with Zero holding his Z-Saber out to the side and remarking "What could have caused all this? Could it have been Vile?" X looked at Zero and remarked "It looks like his handiwork. But why would he go around destroying Doppler's property?"

"Do you really have to ask that, X?" Zero remarked in a nonchalant tone, and X thought back to the whole affair with the building Vile blew up and shook his head to forget the subject entirely. "Regardless, it's probably safe to assume he's in the area. We have to be careful, he'll be ready for us…" X stated while gripping his arm cannon. As lightning roared outside the broken windows, X and Zero continued their advance through Doppler's laboratory.

They quickly came across a shaft that was blocked off by a couple of crab Mechaniloids. Zero leaped up and swung his sword above his head to cut down one of the crabs, then connected with the wall and jumped to the second crab while swinging his sword outward, slicing it apart and putting a glowing gash into the wall before he lands against it and scales his way to the next horizontal platform. He then lifts his Z-Saber up to block a spiked ball from one of those bulkier Mechaniloids while X made his way up to his location, where X then used a couple Acid Burst shots to melt through and take it down.

X then landed on the ground and switched back to his normal colors, and he and Zero continued to climb their way to the top of this part of the lab while X used the shield of the Triad Thunder to take down whatever Mechaniloids were stuck to the walls. Zero leaped over X with the help of his Air Dash and sliced down one of the red Mechaniloids before the two of them landed on the floor and sprinted forward. After that there was a straight forward hallway complete with grenade and spiked ball throwing Mechaniloids, but X used the charged shot of the Parasitic Bomb to swarm the Mechaniloids and destroy them all swiftly.

After that there was a surprising lack of opposition for quite a while, even as X and Zero dropped down a long shaft into a more underground location. The lights had dimmed, but it was still easy for X and Zero to see their way forward without using their night vision. They had to navigate a series of broken iron pipes intertwined across the area, fighting off more Mechaniloids until they make it to the other side, where they repeatedly jump off a wall and scale their way back to the top of the room.

This placed them in front of a pair of steel doors, and X and Zero cautiously made their way through them to arrive in a strange room with sealed paint cylinders across the floor and very large open windows that showed off more than half of Doppler Town down below. The attack on the conduits was still occurring, but a few of them appear to have been destroyed. X and Zero paused for a moment and decided to check up on their situation through their navigators, with Alia telling them both _"Things are going well on our end you two. Three out of eight conduits have been destroyed so far. Signas and Colonel have been discussing their next move after they've taken care of them."_

" _They will bomb Doppler's laboratory, removing all traces of his research and such so nothing like this can ever be replicated by other Mavericks."_ Iris remarked afterwards, and Zero commented "And I suppose they'll bomb the place after we take care of Doppler himself." _"Correct. You're already halfway to his location, so keep it up!"_ Iris said with a great deal of enthusiasm.

But before X and Zero advanced further, Alia suddenly remarked _"Careful! There's a hostile approaching your location!"_ The duo went on their guard and watched as all of a sudden a large insect-like Mechaniloid flies straight into the room through one of the broken windows. This Mechaniloid was green with a body shaped like a mosquito, complete with a tiny metal tongue and propellers acting as it's wings. It dove down at the paint cylinders and sucked up some of the paint within through it's tongue, causing it's body to become dark red in color.

The propellers of the Mechaniloid then get set on fire, with it conjuring up flames around it's entire body before it was ready to fight the duo. "Doppler must be stretching his forces thin if this is all he can send after us…Lets take this down quickly X." Zero remarked while gripping the handle of his Z-Saber tightly, and X quickly switched to Gravity Beetle's colors and charged up energy while remarking "Then get back Zero…I'll handle this one!"

With his confidence present, X's one sentence was enough to make Zero quickly backhop until he was behind his ally, at which point X suddenly lifted himself up off the ground and raised his pointer finger up high, unleashing the energy of the Gravity Well with all of his might upon the Mechaniloid before it could even move. Waves upon waves of pure gravity bombard the Mechaniloid from above, crushing it down against the ground crunching it's body into a crumpled form in a matter of seconds. The lids of the paint cylinders are affected in the same way, making them completely incapable of being used ever again.

By the time X had finished using the Gravity Well, there was no way the Mechaniloid would seemingly ever function again. It twitched against the ground for a few seconds and then exploded, with Zero remarking as it was finished off "Good move X…Glad we didn't have to waste too much time with this. Lets get a move on." The duo began to make their way for the doors on the other side of the room when all of a sudden a glowing blue data core emerged from the fallen Mechaniloid and flew straight at the wall connected to the door, slamming hard against it and spreading out to create a thin wall of pure hard data.

The duo paused for a moment, with Zero gritting his teeth and remarking "Tsk…! Looks like this Mechaniloid had a trap placed into him by Doppler. But if he thinks a wall is going to keep us from progressing, then he's sorely mistaken!" Zero then rushed at the data wall and swung at it with all of his might while keeping his Z-Saber grasped in both hands, but even as his blade grinded against the wall it didn't do anything to harm or disrupt it. In fact, Zero is repelled by a show of force from the wall, making him skid back across the ground.

"Keep trying Zero…Knowing Doppler, it's got to be very durable." X said while activating both of his arm cannons and preparing charged shots in them both. He then fires upon the data wall while Zero continued to swing at it with his Z-Saber, but even with all of their force the two can't manage to damage the wall in the slightest. Zero stands back and pants a little, remarking to X in a bothered tone "W-What's up with this thing? Our attacks aren't damaging it…"

"What are we going to do now Zero? Do we try and get in contact with Signas or Colonel and request an air vehicle so we can get around this?" X inquired, offering a suggestion he had just that second come up with, and Zero responded by shaking his head and telling his friend "We can't bother them right now. They need to focus all of their efforts onto destroying the conduits…Besides, Doppler would likely shoot any support down from the air if they get close to here."

"Ghh…We can't give up! There has to be a way to get past this!" X remarked, not giving up regardless of how hopeless the situation seemed at the moment. However, then an intercom activated in the room, with the familiar voice of Doppler calling out to the duo and saying _"Hehehe…There's no way for anyone of your capabilities to make it past here!"_

"Doppler! Come out and face us coward!" Zero exclaimed after hearing his voice, and Doppler said in response rather bluntly and arrogantly _"Don't even think you can order around someone of my caliber, Zero! The only way you are going to make it past here is to tear down this wall…But it's a pure data wall, made out of a seven-layer encrypted firewall, forged from the highest level processor I could procure, and protected by twenty different kinds of anti-virus software! Brute force will never overcome this wall, Maverick Hunters! Only I'm smart enough to crack it, and if you think I would do such a thing then you're sorely mistaken! You can just wait here until I am ready to confront you!"_

X and Zero both grit their teeth and glanced at the ceiling where the voice was coming from, with X in particular raising his arm cannon at the intercom's location and preparing to fire upon it. But though he was angered by Doppler's words, he didn't decide to waste his energy just to destroy an intercom. He lowered his head and trembled a little as the anger continued to build up, but then another familiar voice spoke out to quell that anger _"It's not over yet X…Zero…There is one other person who can bypass this data wall."_

The duo looks behind them, and who else would approach them but the hologram of Dr. Cain himself, who walked into the room with the help of some small legs attached to the platform that projected his form. Dr. Cain glanced at the data wall while he walked towards it, saying in a somewhat nostalgic voice _"Isn't that right, my old friend?" "…Well well Cain…Aren't you a brave one? You decided to infiltrate my laboratory all on your own, knowing full well that I could have annihilated the platform you ride with just a single Mechaniloid…"_ Doppler remarked in an intrigued but still arrogant tone of voice.

"He's right you know…How did you make it here doctor?" Zero remarked as Cain walked between him and X, and as Dr. Cain stopped the platform before the data wall he remarked _"You have done a very good job constructing this town, Doppler. You have many accommodations made to fit a variety of Reploids, you had plenty of areas for them to work at their pleasure without so much as a care share towards the Maverick War…You really did create a paradise for Reploids to reside in, it's just a shame that you chose to use this town for the sole purpose of continuing this war…"_

" _A war like this will never end until one side is completely exterminated…You're naïve to think otherwise, Cain."_ Doppler replied with, and Cain nodded his head a little and replied with _"Perhaps you are right…It was that very same naivety that made me believe that I could understand Dr. Light's designs and make Reploids to be perfectly like X. I was an archeologist, after all…A far cry from a robotics expert. And yet…It was through the very same naivety that I was able to create you, my dear friend."_

" _And now I'm sure you regret that decision with every cybernetic fiber of your being, Cain."_ Doppler said with a coy scoff at the end, but Cain merely shook his head and closed his eyelids before responding _"I will never regret creating the Reploids. No…What I regret is not doing something to stop this madness of yours sooner. That changes now…I will do away with this wall of yours so X and Zero can move on."_

Dr. Cain suddenly raised his holographic arms up away from his cane, which disappears as two robotic hands emerged from the platform he rode and extended out towards the data wall. The fingers connect with the wall and integrate with it fully, and Dr. Cain immediately begins to work on it with a great deal of energy in his voice as he said _"Connecting binary coding section 478 to linearity code 47. Marking subsection B with data link from subsection J…"_

" _So once more we play this game of ours, Dr. Cain…Of course, that means my countermove is to delete fragment core Arc7 and replace it with Trojan viral system subsection omega."_ Doppler said as his response, but Cain moves his mechanical hands across the data wall with great dexterity and said _"This is the same type of data wall that you and I first played together on…I get it now, you wanted me to show myself here, Doppler, as I am the only one who could solve this problem. Divide the median unit…Multiply the quadrant field of subsection ZX, replace the result with B. Network system 1-6..."_

" _So you assume that things will go by the same way as before? I learned from that loss, Cain. Quantify the value of integers in subsection H…Defend anti-virus system with units from area 4x54."_ Doppler once again replied without missing a single beat in his commands, but Cain followed up by bluntly remarking _"And yet you are following the moves down to the letter. Are you planning on surprising me at the very end with a move I could not possibly expect? Accept command override SF…1...2...3...Invert the quantum matrix, establish connection to pocket unit 'Legends'."_

" _Hehehe…Age and death has not slowed you down at all, but victory is assured on my end all the same. Counterattack with viral protection on subsequent unit X, parameter multiplication unit 1.2.333478214."_ Doppler remarked, and Dr. Cain smiled a little and then remarked _"I have truly missed these times, my old friend…Intercept viral protection, eliminate with countermeasures established in subsection D…"_

This back and forth continued between the two geniuses for a good few minutes, with X and Zero cautiously standing back and watching as Dr. Cain slowly worked on dismantling the data wall. They could do nothing to contribute, and didn't state anything to avoid distracting Dr. Cain. In due time, Dr. Cain's effort cause the indomitable wall of data to collapse upon itself, with Dr. Cain pulling his mechanical hands away from it and returning them to the platform, laying his holographic hands atop his cane once more and letting out a melancholic sigh.

X and Zero ran up beside Dr. Cain, with X happily stating "You did it doctor! Now we can continue on!" Zero grinned a little and then remarked in turn "I got to admit that whole thing was pretty confusing, but I can't argue with the results. You should head back to the HQ now…Leave Doppler to us!"

Dr. Cain was oddly quiet, and so was Doppler as well despite having been defeated by his friend. Dr. Cain creaked his eyelids open and let out a slight chuckle, glancing down at the top of his platform before remarking _"…Thank you for this final game, my old friend. It seems in the end…You finally won against me."_ X and Zero glanced back at Dr. Cain, with X remarking in a puzzled tone "Doctor? …What do you mean?"

Dr. Cain chuckled a little, and there was a brief pause before all of a sudden his holographic form began to twitch. Then Dr. Cain grunted in pain as a strange dark-blue material begins to crawl it's way up from the top of his platform, consuming his holographic body little by little while Dr. Cain fights off the pain being fed into his consciousness' manifestation. X and Zero immediately react with absolute shock on their faces, with X in particular running over and kneeling down in front of the platform to examine what was happening.

"What's going on here Dr. Cain?!" Zero bluntly inquired while gritting his teeth in concern, with Doppler suddenly chiming in and answering for Cain with _"Eehehehe! Right you are, my dear Cain! I learned all too well that I could never beat you with that format of data, so instead of trying to win, I planned to lose!"_

"DOPPLER! Darn it…What have you done?!" X exclaimed in a fit of pure rage as he clenched a fist and raised it halfway close to his chest, and Doppler went on to state _"I've outsmarted my foolish human creator! You thought you were so clever Cain…Playing ignorant while secretly directing both the Maverick Hunters and Repliforce to go against me the moment X and Zero found evidence to prove my 'guilt'! But now look at you…Slowly being consumed by the virus I had implanted into that wall that would only activate the moment you won!"_

"Grrrr….!" Zero was nothing but angry at Doppler for playing Cain like that, and he quickly decided to get in contact with Alia and Iris to ask them for help. But before he laid a hand against his helmet Zero was interrupted by Dr. Cain remarking _"…Don't worry about that Zero…It's too late for me."_

Zero swung his head to face Dr. Cain and told him "No it's not! You aren't going to die…Not like this!" Dr. Cain replied in turn _"Zero…I already died more than a year ago. You have to remember, this hologram is just a manifestation of my preserved consciousness…And I must admit right now that I already knew that Doppler planned to trick me into putting this virus into my systems…But it only confirms what I had guessed before."_

"What…What do you mean doctor?" X inquired, and Dr. Cain glared up at the ceiling as the virus reached halfway up his body and remarked quietly _"That something is wrong with Doppler…And I do not believe it's a matter of him being a Maverick. Even if he was a Maverick, I doubt he would ever resort to this pragmatism…His pride as a genius would not allow it. X, Zero…Please listen to me when I say that you should not blame Doppler for what has happened, and you need to uncover the truth behind this whole matter on your own."_

The virus began to reach for Dr. Cain's neck, and the doctor kindly smiled and remarked as X and Zero looked at him with disbelieving expressions _"X…Zero…You will make the future a better place. I am proud to have lived long enough to see you both do great things in this world…Now, there is one thing I have left to do…"_ All of a sudden, Dr. Cain used the remaining energy he had left in this platform to hijack the intercoms spread across all of Doppler Town and the Maverick Hunter HQ simultaneously, with one speech he had left to give to all that were there to listen.

" _Humans and Reploids alike! I am Dr. Cain, the creator of the Reploids…And once a humble archeologist. For the past year following my death, my consciousness has carried on through technology, but alas…I am reaching my final moments in this world. There will be no return for me this time around, but there is something I must say. I have seen the creation of something beautiful…and at the same time I have seen those beautiful creations of mine turn Maverick before my very eyes, including the first Reploid I ever created, Sigma. I take full responsibility for all crimes Sigma and his rebellion have performed, as it was my foolishness that led to the programming defects. However…The creation of Mavericks is no excuse for Reploids and humans to be at odds with one another! Humanity, my dear and fellow species…I urge of you to not show hatred towards Reploids, but try to accept them as one of your own. You can halt the creation of more Mavericks by accepting rather than hating the Reploids of this world. In the end, peace and understanding between both races was the dream of one Doctor Thomas Light, a man whose place in history we have foolishly forgotten… And the man whose dream became mine as well, all thanks to his finest creation, X…"_

Dr. Cain managed to halt the virus within his holographic form long enough to finish his long speech, and by now his face was almost fully covered. He looked down at X and said to him _"Thank you X…For everything. I leave the peace of this world…in your very capable hands…"_ He then gave up on resisting, and let the virus swallow his holographic form whole. In a matter of seconds, the hologram collapsed upon itself and deactivated, with the platform crumbling and it's legs spreading across the floor.

X kneeled down and looked at the platform, the last remnant of Dr. Cain's existence on this world. He trembled in sadness for a few seconds, completely at a loss of words until Zero laid a hand on his shoulder, at which point X glanced over his shoulder and saw Zero with his eyelids closed and a melancholic look on his face. The two did not need to say anything to understand what they were experiencing in regards to Dr. Cain's demise. X lifted up onto his feet and turned around, and after a momentary pause to swallow the fact that the man that had welcomed him to the Maverick Hunters was gone he had but one thing to say "…Lets finish this, Zero."

The duo then advanced further through Doppler's lab. With their vigor put all into putting an end to this madness, X and Zero destroy all of the Mechaniloids that get in their path with more ease than before, traversing all obstacles regardless of how intimidating they looked, including the spiked walls that Doppler placed to prevent the two from ascending a shaft. It didn't take very long for them to make it to another set of steel doors, and they ran through it without hesitation. They dropped down into a wide-open room similar to the one they fought Bit and Byte in, only with a lot more destruction spread across the area and the windows blasted open, revealing the storm clouds in the sky outside raging on with bolts of lightning at rapid intervals.

But the more pressing thing to focus on was the person on the opposite end of the room. Once more, Vile made his appearance known, this time he was riding a more powerful and larger Ride Armor than the one X had faced. It had larger, more spread out spiked fists, blocky armor with bulkier legs, chest and shoulders, hydraulics on the legs, and plenty of weaponry to go around. X and Zero glared at Vile as the maniac burst into laughter and remarked in an unhinged tone "FINALLY! I was waiting for you to show up for far too long, X!"

"Get out of our way Vile! We don't have time to waste fighting you now!" X exclaimed with all of his energy, and Vile exclaimed "What? You want to get revenge on Doppler after that stupid, loud-mouthed doctor was killed?! Hahaha…That sap got what he deserved, spouting off such menial bullshit like that! Hahahahaha! All that matters is killing you X…I'll rip you apart with my Goliath Ride Armor and puncture the individual pieces until you can't even qualify as scrap!"

X grit his teeth in anger of how Vile so cruelly mocked Doppler, with Zero bluntly telling him as he pointed his Z-Saber at him "He was your creator Vile! Are you really that much of an indecent Maverick that you can't even show him SOME respect in death?!" Vile bluntly exclaimed as he tightly gripped his controls "SHUT UP! I don't care at all about some stupid human! How many times do I have to tell you this?! I only care about X's destruction…Nothing else is worth living for in this world!"

"…Vile, you're pathetic." X said after taking a moment to calm himself down, and this just set Vile off as he exclaimed "WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME, X?!" X raised his right arm cannon at the gigantic Ride Armor and roared "It's time for us to take you out of this world forever Vile! You'll never come back to life again!"

"YOU CAN'T STOP ME X! I AM INVINCIBLE!" Vile exclaimed, his insanity reaching an unbelievable peak before he roared the engines of his Ride Armor, causing flaming to erupt from the vents on the shoulders and legs, and Vile then started the battle off by immediately whirring his right arm to life and raising it up to fire a barrage of pin-shaped energy blasts towards the duo. X and Zero split off to avoid the barrage, with X receiving most of the focus from the attack due to Vile's focused hatred towards him.

But this let Zero rush at the Goliath Ride Armor and try to attack the joint, but as his Z-Saber connects with the metallic joint it just rebounds right off it without even putting a single scratch into it. Vile then responds to the attack by swinging his arm out and hitting Zero with a backhanded blow while remarking "Get out of my way!" and then activating the thrusters on his Ride Armor to charge straight after X, going as fast as a Ride Bike to get close to X in a matter of seconds.

X widened his eyes and then quickly switched to Volt Catfish's colors, charging up the energy for that and readying to punch the ground to unleash his attack, but Vile rammed his armor's right fist into X's chest with all of his might to send him flying against a wall and put a couple holes into the chest of X's armor. But now that he was against the wall X took the charged up Triad Thunder and punched the wall, unleashing a shockwave of electricity that traveled down the wall and across the floor to reach Vile's Goliath.

The electricity surged through the Ride Armor and reached Vile himself, but Vile just laughed violently at the attack and thrust his Ride Armor's arms out to break the electricity off of him, remarking all the while "That attack is weak! You're weak, X!" But while X was distracting Vile with that attack Zero ran behind him and used his Z-Saber while it was charged up, delivering a heavy slash to the Goliath that manages to actually put a decent sized cut into the metal.

But Vile quickly responded by kneeling the Ride Armor down and spinning himself around with his arms planted against the ground. He caught Zero up in his spinning bulk and repeatedly hit him with the upper part of his arms to deal a rapidly increasing amount of damage until the point where X rapid-fired a bunch of Tornado Fangs at the armor, all of which exploded upon it and disrupted Vile's rotation, pushing him back simultaneously and letting Zero slide along the ground away from the Ride Armor.

X then quickly charged up energy and thrust himself at the Goliath with a charged Tunnel Fang attached to his right arm. He rammed the Ride Armor in the chest with his arm raised, drilling at it with all he could while keeping his footing steady. Vile replied by spinning his Ride Armor's hands around and ramming them against the sides of X's drill, creating a flurry of massive sparks that brighten the room and force Zero to stand back temporarily while Vile breaks the drill down rapidly.

But X did not give up, and quickly charged up energy again and switched to his other arm to thrust a second drill out, slipping it against the spikes on the Goliath's hands, this time with X being the one successful in breaking the spikes off the arms, causing Vile to quickly push his Ride Armor back and remark "Grr…How dare you!" He then swung his arms out and replaced the broken spikes with completely new ones, followed by him raising missile launchers from his shoulders and firing them upon X.

As X leaped around to avoid the missile salvo, Zero swung his Z-Saber forward while a javelin and caused it to pierce through both of the missile launchers, with the side effect of hitting a couple of the missiles held within and making both of them blow up right away, with the splash of the explosions hitting Vile on the sides of his body and making him growl in annoyance before he lifted his right arm up and transformed it into a laser cannon, pointing it at Zero and exclaiming "Get out of my sight Zero! This isn't your fight!"

Vile fires a rather large laser ball from the arm cannon at Zero, but Zero quickly swings his Z-Saber upward and cuts through the attack without reacting at all to Vile's outburst. Because Vile wasted his time trying to attack Zero, X was able to prepare two charged shots in his arm cannon and launch them both at Vile himself, both of them creating a miniature series of explosions and cracking the helmet he was wearing. Zero then leaped at the Ride Armor and swung his Z-Saber downward to cut vertically through the laser cannon, which causes a recoil of energy from it that forces Vile to detach it from the rest of his Ride Armor before it blew up.

Zero then lands on the ground and leaped back before Vile could swing his spiked arm out his way, and X followed up on Zero's efforts by targeting the other arm with a couple of Parasitic Bombs, and the drones that emerge from the bomb swarm the arm and blow up on it to heavily damage it. The arm recoils backwards, but Vile didn't take very long to lift both of his arms up and convert them into blazing flamethrowers. He swings them out and spins his body around, letting the far reaching flames try and burn Zero and X down.

But X switched to Blizzard Buffalo's colors and charged up a Frost Shield, using it to defend himself from the flames while Zero simply got out of the range of the flamethrowers. X then dropped the Frost Shield from his arm cannon and kicked it right at the Ride Armor, which impacts it and breaks apart with enough force to disrupt the armor's balance and make it fall onto it's back. Zero then leaped high into the air and stabbed his Z-Saber straight down into the chest of the Ride Armor after charging it up with all of his might.

He punctured right through the chest and reached the core of the Ride Armor, and he quickly pulled his Z-Saber out of it and leaped off, with the core malfunction and beginning to explode within the Goliath. Zero slowly walked forward to go to X, but Vile growled in anger and said "No…No…I WON'T BE HUMILIATED LIKE THIS AGAIN!" Vile quickly activated the thrusters on the back of his Ride Armor's legs and forced himself upright. He swung his right hand up with spikes spread out, and then he slammed it down towards Zero.

Zero turned around just in time for Vile to press his hand down upon Zero's chest, quickly pinning him against the ground while his Ride Armor continued to explode all around. Vile kept inside of his armor, remarking maniacally as he did so "I'M TAKING YOU WITH ME ZERO. X CAN SUFFER WITH YOUR DEMISE ONCE MORE, AND THIS TIME…YOU WON'T EVER COME BACK! SO DIE, DIE YOU STUBBORN REPLOID!"

X quickly raised his arm cannons and readied to fire upon Vile, but Zero quickly exclaimed "X! Don't shoot directly at the armor!" X lifted his head up slightly with his expression being one of panic before he remarked "Zero! You can't sacrifice yourself again! I won't allow it!" As the painful memories of Zero's last demise return to X's mind, Zero remarked as the pain of Vile's pressure starts to get to him "I-It's not going to be like the same time! X…You need to attack the joint now!"

Looking at the joint that Zero mentioned, X quickly realized what Zero's plan was and nodded his head, preparing a powerful charged shot that he fires directly at the joint, causing a explosion that weakens it, and a second later Zero takes his Z-Saber up and swings at the weakened joint to cut it apart. The pressure of Vile's arm is released, and Zero quickly pushed the arm off of his body and stood upright, with Vile angrily swinging his left arm out to try and do the same thing he did before while exclaiming in brutal anger "CURSE YOU BO-"

His Ride Armor then promptly explodes, but Zero does not manage to get out of the way of the whole explosion in time and takes a rather large chunk of damage from it that simultaneously flings him across the room and makes him slam against a wall, with X running towards him and exclaiming his name in shock. Zero landed on his rear with his sword still in his hands and his teeth slightly grit, but he lifted his head up and looked at the burning wreckage of Vile's Goliath Ride Armor and remarked "Heh…You're not going to take me out with your cheap tricks, Vile…"

By the time X walked up to him, Zero had recovered enough from the recoil of the explosion to grin and state "Good…teamwork there X." X extended his hand out and remarked after letting out a sigh of relief "You alright Zero?" Zero accepted X's grasp and stood upright with his help a few seconds later, all the while telling him "I took some heavy damage from that explosion…But at least I'm still standing…"

Once X let go of Zero's hand, however, some electricity shot out across Zero's body and he grunted in pain, which led to him gripping his right arm with his left hand and leaning forward slightly, trying to keep a nonchalant look on his face despite the fact that X was clearly not fooled. "Heh…Who am I trying to fool here…Vile's explosion did a real number on my body X. I probably won't be very helpful to you from here on out…" Zero remarked, and X told him in a concerned tone "Zero, you should probably get back to the HQ and heal up. I can wait for you until you get back."

"…X, we don't have time for that. Doppler…has to be stopped. You need to go on without me and stop him…Heh, don't worry about me, I'll go get healed up and then help out Signas and Colonel. I'll have Iris and Alia keep an eye on you so I can keep up with what's going on…" Zero remarked, with X looking at him and shaking his head with "Zero, I can't do this without you."

"Don't be stupid X, you're much better at this sort of thing that I am…I'm always glad to help you out, but this is more your fight than it is mine anyways…" Zero remarked with a slight grin on his face, and then after a momentary pause Zero fought off the sparks on his body long enough to stand upright and then extend his right hand out, placing his Z-Saber at a steady level on his palm before he told a surprised X "X…I want you to take my Z-Saber with you. I get the feeling you're going to need it."

With his mouth slightly agape for a moment, X looked at the Z-Saber and then back up at Zero's face, and he remarked before stating "Zero…Are you sure you want me to borrow this?" "Of course, I wouldn't suggest it otherwise." Zero replied with a bit of a smile on his face, and after a momentary pause X lifted his right hand up and picked up the Z-Saber from the handle and chose to deactivate the blade before attaching it to his back.

"Zero…Thank you. Please don't get into any trouble now, that was a close one just now." X remarked, and Zero just chuckled at that and told his friend "Oh come on, I'm the one who should be telling you not to get in trouble. Don't worry about me X…Just do what needs to be done, and we'll all make it back home safely. That's what Dr. Cain would want us to do now."

X nodded his head in agreement and then turned around, making his way past the wreckage of Vile's body and Ride Armor to head through the door on the other side, while Zero just stands himself upright and remarks "Tch…I really need to be more careful…The Mavericks are just getting tougher and tougher to deal with these days…But X can handle this, I know he can…" Zero then prepared to do what he said he'd do, leaving the rest up to X.

X continued on through a few more corridors within Doppler's laboratory, keeping quiet to himself as the pathway continued to darken, eventually leading to X calmly walking into a room bathed in pitch black. He stopped in place and slanted his eyebrows, suspecting that an ambush was waiting to happen. Sure enough, eight pairs of glowing eyes surfaced across the room, and the darkness was cast away to reveal the eight Mavericks that X and Zero had bested have returned, all of them likely rebuilt by Doppler.

They didn't speak a word and looked rather primal in their statures, but as the eight foes stared him down X remained as calm as can be while he reached for the Z-Saber. He grasped the handle tightly and began charging energy the moment his hand connected, and the Mavericks quickly leaped at him all at once to try and overwhelm their foe. X, as his body glowed with green energy, exclaimed with all of his ferocity "OUT OF MY WAY!" He then took the Z-Saber out from behind his back and swung it out horizontally, unleashing all the energy out in the form of a powerful energy wave that sliced through all of the Mavericks as though they were just paper floating in the air.

The Mavericks froze in place as they split apart and promptly exploded, with X slowly making his way past the explosions without flinching, looking up to see a hallway near the ceiling that he could take, and more than likely this would lead him to Doppler's location. Gripping the Z-Saber tightly, X leaped right up to the hallway and landed perfectly, glaring at the steel doors at the opposite side of the room and remarking to himself "This ends now Doppler…" before he began his slow stride towards his destination…

 _Next Time: The Maverick Truth_


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: The Maverick Virus**

After a slow advance through the hallway preceding the steel doors, X waited for said doors to slide open, an action that seems to take quite a while longer than it actually did due to the growing anticipation he had towards finally facing down Dr. Doppler. "After all the trouble you've caused, this is finally coming to an end…" X murmured while gripping Zero's Z-Saber tightly, and he dashed into the next room the very moment the doors finished opened. He stood directly on the other side of them, looking around as the doors shut tight behind him.

He looked to the left and saw a very disturbing piece of work created by Doppler. It was a rounded core with a glowing red center that looked like a pulsating eye, with dozens of wires strung out from it that are all latched to the walls and ceilings respectively. As the light on the eye continues to pulsate, X looked to the right and saw the person he was looking for staring out the clean glass window, his arms folded nonchalantly behind his white lab coat. X stepped forward slightly and glared at the person he recognized as Doppler, and past that he saw the Maverick Hunters still fighting valiantly to destroy Doppler's conduits.

"A pity…All that hard work I put into replicating the X-Hunters' technology, gone to waste…Oh well, I suppose I can just rebuild them when the time is right." Doppler goes from sounding concerned to arrogant rather quickly, which is then followed by X raising his right hand up and switching the Z-Saber over to his other hand while he converted the right one to an arm cannon, charging it up and pointing it at Doppler's back while remarking "No…This ends now, Doppler!"

Doppler grinned and lifted a hand up to rub his beard, remarking rather calmly as he did so "X…You made it to the center of my laboratory after all. Hmmm, I guess once more, Vile was just a useless waste of space. But now I'm curious…Why are you facing me alone X? Did Zero have to kill himself again to save your life?" X grit his teeth and fired his charged shot off at Doppler without hesitation, but Doppler quickly swung his body to the right and raised his respective hand up while two small conductors popped up on his shoulders by ripping through his lab coat.

An electric shield appeared around Doppler's body and allowed him to catch X's charged shot in his hand, crushing it down with a little bit of time and effort. Doppler then chuckled as X looked at him with surprise, stating as he looked his way "You're being quite aggressive today X…Have I done something to offend your inferior mind?" X hesitantly changed his right hand back to normal before growling at Doppler and telling him "Doppler…For the crimes of attempted terrorism, murder of humans and Reploids, and especially the death of your creator and best friend Dr. Cain…It is my duty as a Maverick Hunter to destroy you!"

Doppler began walking across the room towards the side opposite of X, telling him while he grunted and rubbed his metallic forehead "You're such a pain…Grr…" He then lifted his hand away from his face and told X while laughing merrily "You think I have been a Maverick all this time? I've been trying to SAVE this world of ours!"

"Shut up! I don't want to hear any of your insanity!" X exclaimed bluntly, but Doppler then grabbed his forehead again and with an irritated expression he said "Yes…Shut up, shut up! That's all you need to do you nuisance!" X thought nothing of the words he said at that moment, especially once Doppler started laughing maniacally before turning his head and looking at him while remarking "Then shoot at me X! Do you think you will be successful a second time?!"

X was half tempted to raise his arm cannon and try again, but realized that he needed to be cautious enough to not fall for Doppler's traps. Doppler grinned at that and then remarked "Good boy…You are not completely stupid. Let me ask you something X…Do you believe it's possible to save a Reploid from becoming Maverick?" X remarked "Of course I do. It's not impossible!"

"That's just an optimistic lie you tell yourself and you know it X. Mavericks are always a possibility, because every Reploid was built with the very same exploitable flaw due to that fool Cain's inability to understand just what made you the perfect creation." Doppler remarked, and X just grit his teeth and continued to hear the mad doctor out as he said "So long as Mavericks exist, there will never be peace between Reploids and humans…So doesn't it make more sense to just remove all differences by turning all Reploids into Mavericks and removing the humans? Then there will be no more wars, there will just be a Maverick Earth, a paradise for all with me as it's ruler!"

"You're insane! You're never going to get away with this plan!" X exclaimed, and Doppler replied "You're never going to get away with this…You're insane…You're just nothing more than an outlet for stock phrases, aren't you X? Of course, I suppose I am not one to talk in the end…I'm being viewed as the mad scientist trying to conquer this world, after all."

"I just don't get why you're acting like this Doppler. I want to believe in what Cain said about you…But you're spitting on his views, his life, everything about him!" Doppler exclaimed "Cain was nothing more than a naïve fool! He…He….He was not a fool! Stop staining his name with your treachery!" Doppler's words suddenly shifted to the completely opposite meaning halfway through his sentence, and he grips the sides of his head like a maniac while trembling uncontrollably.

X was greatly confused by Doppler's actions until the doctor swung his arms out and laughed some more, exclaiming to X bluntly "It seems I have become a real Jekyll and Hyde case here! Hehehe…HEHEHEH!" X clenched his hands tightly and whispered "Something's not right here…" Doppler then stated to X "I will not be stopped X! My plans to create a Maverick paradise will never die!"

Doppler then gripped the sides of his head and forcibly remarked "X…X…H-Help…M-Meee!" Doppler's voice was strained to come through his own mouth, followed by him swinging his arms out and exclaiming at the top of his lungs "Enough out of you! This is my fight and mine alone! Prepare yourself X, it's time for you to make like Cain…And die!" Doppler then ripped his lab coat off with one hand, revealing a perfectly functional battle body underneath. He had broad shoulders with his conductors still popping out from them, his hands and feet were bright blue and heavily armored, and his chest and metallic abs were rather ripped looking.

"You've gotten in the way of my plans long enough…Now witness the perfection of my body taking form on this battlefield of my own creation!" The conductors erupted into sparks and the electricity traveled to Doppler's hands, and he swung his arms out to fire a large wave of electricity straight at X. X only had an instant to roll to the right to avoid getting zapped, and the electricity fried a hole through the doors behind him afterwards. X then quickly switched to Tunnel Rhino's colors and fired off a few Tornado Fangs from his right arm cannon as he placed the deactivated Z-Saber on his back for the time being.

Doppler fired off more electricity from his fingertips to fry through all of the drills sent his way, remarking as he did so "I've had plenty of time to prepare for you X! I've seen everything! I know all that you are going to do! You're…OUTDATED!" Doppler then punched the ground to release the electricity he had built up in the form of a ground covering shockwave, and X leaped back while switching to Volt Catfish's colors, activating the Triad Thunder to protect himself from the electricity as it travels up the wall he leaped onto.

X then charged up the Triad Thunder so the moment the pyramid shaped shield dropped he was able to fire off a series of electric balls straight at Doppler in hopes of overpowering his electricity with some of his own. But Doppler just created another shield to absorb the electricity into his body, which led to the electricity surrounding his body to become dark blue and radiate around him. Doppler quickly unleashed this excess energy by thrusting his hands out and creating a gigantic beam of electricity, all the while grinning at X for his mistake.

X dropped from the wall and landed on his right arm just in the nick of time, and the electricity burns right through the wall he was on and shoots out through the laboratory's outer walls in a flash. X then charged up energy in his arm cannon while Doppler was distracted, firing a charged shot straight into his chest before he could create a shield. Doppler stumbled back a bit as the attack connected, but then he responded by grinning again and sprinting right at X. He grabbed the Hunter by his chin as he was in the middle of standing upright, sending plenty of voltage through his grasp to shock X and make him scream in pain for a few seconds before Doppler decided to turn himself around and pound X's body against the ground a couple times to further harm him.

But while Doppler had him pinned to the ground, X quickly pulled the Z-Saber from his back and attacked one of the cords on Doppler's arms with a clean cut, thus cutting off the electricity he could send off into it. Doppler then throws X away from his body by making him slide across the floor, and he quickly moves his freed hand to the broken cord in order to put it back together with quick motions of his hands. X faced Doppler after feeling the friction of being moved along the ground, and he fires a charged shot right at him.

Doppler formed an electric shield around his body to block the charged shot, and by the time he was done repairing the cord he clenched his fist tightly and thrust said arm out to send out a few streams of electricity from the shield at X. The electricity wrapped around X's upper body like ropes and pulled him right back in to Doppler, where the doctor then punched X in the chest with all of his might, snapping the streams of electricity and knocking X into the wall straight ahead of Doppler, putting a crater in the wall from the impact.

X then grunted a little while he pulled himself free from the crater using both of his hands, and he landed on the ground and ducked before Doppler could fire a wave of electricity horizontally his way. X then decided to use the helmet to try and figure out Doppler's weakness, but his visor only flared a "WARNING!" sign in bold red letters, meaning that it could not tell what Doppler's weakness was at all. X would have to figure it out all on his own, but he couldn't let the doctor know what he was thinking due to how smart he was.

X thus quickly switched to Blast Hornet's colors and fired off a few Parasitic Bombs at the ground to release the hornet drones within, but Doppler just laughs the effort off and remarks "Hahaha…You're getting quite desperate to figure out my weakness, aren't you? This body of mine HAS no weakness, X!" Doppler then clapped his hands together and made the electricity around his body burst outward in the form of a static field, which made all the drones malfunction and fall to the ground before they exploded.

But while Doppler wasted time with the drones, X had switched to Crush Crawfish's colors and charged the weapon up, and he swung his right hand out to create a gigantic Spinning Blade that is carried through the air by a rope on the back of his hand. The blade tore through the wall to the right of X before it made it's way to Doppler, and even the doctor's incredible electric shield couldn't protect him from X's attack, and his shield was sliced through, with Doppler's chest getting a decent sized scar on it.

X then threw the Spinning Blade out the window and pulled out the Z-Saber, charging at Doppler and attempting to further inflict damage to Doppler's body by cutting into the scar he just created. But Doppler punched his knuckles together and conducting electricity around his fists to create a enough protection against X's sword slash, and he then uses magnetism to pull the edges of his scar inward enough to fix it.

X backed off and then placed the sword on his back while charging up energy in his arm cannon, leading to him firing a head shot at Doppler's head. Doppler grabbed onto the charged shot right in his right hand and then swung himself around, putting his own electricity into the charged shot before he threw it right back at X. A Z-Saber swing downward from behind his back took out the reflected charged shot, allowing X to then place the sword safely on his back and use Crush Crawfish's Spinning Blade to throw two of them at the doctor in an arc through the air.

Doppler swung his hands out on both sides of his body to grab the Spinning Blades and fry them, but X charged up energy and switched to Tunnel Rhino's weapon. With a ready and charged Tornado Fang, X thrust himself forward with the large drill swung out of his right hand, and when Doppler put his electric shield up X is able to drill right through it and target the barely visible slit remaining of the scar he inflicted earlier. He is able to drill through part of the scar and reveal a bit of the heavily constructing innards of Doppler's chest behind it.

Before X could go any deeper than that, Doppler raised both of his fists clenched together above his head and brought them down like a hammer to completely shatter the drill, simultaneously punching X's hand with enough force to bend it out of place for a moment. X feels the creaking of his hand's joint as the punch connects, and what could count as his heart skips a beat in pain before he stumbles back before Doppler could raise his fists up to strike his chin. X then shook the pain off on his wrist and glanced at Doppler's conductors for just a moment.

X began to realize that the only way he was going to deal with Doppler was to destroy those generators. But that just left the question of what type of weapon would be best used for such a task. X leaped back as Doppler swung both of his hands across the air to raze the ground in front of him with lightning blasts and switched to the Frost Shield to protect himself with a charged variation of it, followed up by X kicking the shield right at Doppler.

As Doppler wasted time destroying the shield with a burst of electricity from one of his punches, X leaped into the air and fired two charged shots to hit Doppler's shoulders before he could summon his shield, but even with all the power put into his attacks he wasn't able to even damage the conductors. Doppler then grinned and waited for X to land on the ground before running forward and slamming his right palm against X's chest, spread an "X" shaped blast of electricity across the air for a moment before launching X right into the corner of the ceiling and the wall.

X is then forced face first onto the ground with the front of his chest plate now cracked slightly from shoulder to shoulder, and Doppler brushed his hands together to conduct electricity between them before remarking "You just stand no chance X…Give up." X began to lift himself up and remark to Doppler "Zero would never give up…Alia, Iris, Signas, Cain…They wouldn't give up either…So I'll do the same too!"

Doppler scowled a little and said "You're being ridiculous…I'll make you give up then! You cannot hope to fathom the power at my disposal!" X switched to Toxic Seahorse's colors and exclaimed while charging up energy "It's all power connected to one source though. Lets see how you do without it!" He then swung his right arm cannon up and forward and fired a large Acid Burst, but the bubble of acid flew over Doppler's head, missing him entirely.

"Have the hits to your body damaged your sight, X? Heheheh….!" Doppler was rather humored by X's failure, but X quickly followed up on that attack without hesitation by kicking Doppler's right in the chest to knock him back a few inches. X then landed on the ground and leaped back while switching to Crush Crawfish's colors, charging up energy again to perform another attack with a large Spinning Blade. Doppler prepared his electric shield while remarking "Now just what do you think you're doing?"

Doppler then felt something drop onto his shield, something with acidic content. Doppler then glanced up and saw that the Acid Burst from earlier had stuck to the ceiling and began burning away at it, dripping acid down slowly towards Doppler all the while. But by the time Doppler realized that X had played him for a fool, X had already swung the gigantic Spinning Blade at Doppler while letting out an energetic roar. The blade sliced through Doppler's electric shield and cut through his chest again, and two large bubbles of acid dropped from the ceiling and landed on Doppler's shoulders.

The conductors were quickly burned through before Doppler could fry the liquid acid with his electricity, and finally X let go of the Spinning Blade and quickly charged up energy in his arm cannon to fire at Doppler's now unprotected chest. Doppler widened his eyes and braced himself for impact, which came rather swiftly as the charged shot exploded upon his chest and sent him hurtling across the room, his body slamming head first against the wall before he falls into an upright sitting position on the ground. X then ran over to Doppler and drew the Z-Saber, pointing it close to Doppler's chest and remarking "It's over Doppler…Your plans and your atrocities end here!"

After a few seconds of sitting in place without so much as a murmur or motion, Doppler suddenly grumbled a little and lifted his head up, opening his eyelids and looking straight up at X's face. Instead of responding with arrogance, Doppler smiled a little and began laughing happily, which made X brandish his sword forward slightly against Doppler's neck and remark "Stop laughing! This isn't funny!" Doppler continued to grin as he remarked "No, it is quite hilarious actually! I'm finally free X! And I thank you for freeing me, so there's no need to hold that sword at my neck, I assure you!"

X glared at Doppler and stated "Freed you? …Are you expecting me to believe that you've been controlled all this time? You aren't going to get off with that type of excuse, Doppler!" Doppler then stated as he felt the tip of the Z-Saber dig into his neck slightly "I am not lying my dear X! I was being controlled all this time by someone we're both quite familiar with…You can't seriously think that I would kill my best friend even as a Maverick, do you?"

There was a brief pause where X considered Doppler's words to be true until he remember that Sigma had willingly fired missiles onto Dr. Cain while he still had his physical body. He then pushed the Z-Saber closer into Doppler's neck while exclaiming "Don't try and make a fool out of me! Sigma did that very thing!" "Sigma…Yes…Sigma…Hehehehehe! You have to trust me X, there's far too much at stake here!" Doppler stated after a bit of a nervous laugh.

X exclaimed "There's too much at stake if I simply let you go! I have no reason to trust you Doppler!" At this point, the Z-Saber was seconds away from cutting through Doppler's voice box, and Doppler knew he had but one last chance to make X see things his way, so with a look of sheer frustration on his face he exclaimed with all of his genuine rage and sadness "DAMN IT X! CAIN WAS MY BEST FRIEND…I was arrogant to keep calling him my equal, he was always my superior in every way from the very start to the very end…And yet now he's dead, dead because I dabbled in things I should have known better than to touch! Hehehe…He died by my hands, and from the perception of everyone else in the world I have every right to die now…But you X, you're my last chance to make things right in the world. I just want you to put your faith in me, and we can prevent further calamity from occurring here today…"

Doppler's admission of guilt, the lack of trickery in his words, and the fact that he was standing at death's door with nothing but desperation in his voice…Made X pause for just a few seconds and widen his eyes in shock before he pulled the Z-Saber free from Doppler's neck and swung it out to the side, telling Doppler bluntly as he did so "…If you've tricked me, this is the end of the road Doppler. Now what's going on here?" Doppler rubbed his neck where the wound had formed and remarked after letting out a sigh of relief "Thank you X…"

Doppler then slowly stood upright and looked directly at X, rubbing his chin while remarking to him "You must listen to me carefully X. This whole ordeal you've been forced to endure…The plan to create a Maverick Earth…Cain's regrettable death…It was all caused by one Maverick who was controlling my body." "Don't stall Doppler…Who is it?!" X bluntly inquired, and Doppler gave him a glare and remarked "It was Sigma."

X's eyes immediately widened, and with his mouth agape he stuttered out "S-Sigma? That's impossible…I destroyed him back at the X-Hunter's base all those months ago!" Doppler raised his eyebrows a little and remarked "And you said that back when he was supposedly destroyed at his own base…X, doesn't that sound rather suspicion to you that Sigma has the ability to come back to life like he has? Or more specifically…That he was brought back to life in new bodies when this core unit was at the Maverick Hunter HQ since his first defeat?"

"…Doppler, what do you mean?" X inquired, and Doppler rubbed his chin some more and remarked in a perturbed tone "The answer is quite simple…And at the same time very frightening. Sigma's true form is that of a virus, a virus that is capable of carrying his memories, his functions, and every little essence about him through the bodies of Reploids he wishes to possess. That is how he managed to control me, as I examined a part of his first body that contained bits of his viral form. Ever since I've struggled for control of my own body, watching as Sigma manipulated me and my resources to his nefarious ends, making a mockery of my desire for a Reploid paradise."

"…You actually wanted Doppler Town to become a Reploid paradise?" X inquired, and Doppler nodded his head and remarked in a quiet but melancholy tone "Yes, yes…It had been a dream of mine ever since the Maverick Wars began." Doppler then walked over to the window while X kept a cautious eye on him. Looking outside, Doppler saw as the very town he wanted to make was being destroyed by the Maverick Hunters, with Doppler remarking quietly "…And now this is what it's come to. My dream, buried within the flames of destruction…But in the end, it was all my mistake, X."

"…Doppler, if what you say is true, then it's Sigma's fault. But wait, why isn't he possessing you anymore?" X inquired upon realizing that detail seemed a bit off, with Doppler turning around and remarking "Why else? The moment he saw you were going to destroy me, he jumped ship and is probably preparing to enter the battle body he created using my intelligence. Hehehe…He probably also assumed that you would destroy me before I got a chance to speak about what I know."

X gripped his hands tightly into fists and exclaimed "Then I have to destroy that battle body before he can enter it!" Doppler quickly raised his hand up and remarked "Don't be so hasty yet X. I believe all too well that you can stop Sigma again in his new body, but then what? He becomes a virus and escapes to possess another body and start the process over again. You need to listen to me, I have a plan in mind here to stop Sigma for good."

X looked shocked at Doppler and remarked "A-Already? But you just got control of your body again…Dr. Cain wasn't kidding when he said you were a genius." Doppler just pulled his head back slightly and remarked "Hahaha! I wouldn't go that far…I simply had time to think about how to deal with Sigma's viral form while I was trapped in my own mind. Every virus has a way to be countered, it's just simply a matter of learning how it operates and working up a countermeasure. For all he boasts, Sigma is simply a nuisance waiting to be exterminated."

"How much time do you need to make the antivirus, Doppler?" X inquired, and Doppler quickly replied "It should take me roughly ten to fifteen minutes. But there is something else I must note to you, X…" X looked at Doppler and waited as he remarked "The fact of the matter is that Sigma's viral form is the reason why Mavericks exist in the first place. The residual of Sigma's possessions messes with the flaw in their circuitry and causes them to turn Maverick…But here's the thing…With the way this method of mine works to purge Sigma from the world, I won't be able to create more than one antivirus program, not without giving Sigma enough time to escape."

X paused and glanced downward to contemplate what Doppler was saying, asking him a moment later "But if Sigma's destroyed, then won't that remove the Maverick virus from the other Reploids?" Doppler rubbed his chin and remarked "In theory, it should, but…" Doppler thought back a little to when he first discovered the virus on Sigma's parts, and how he was able to see the very same thing coming from Zero's old parts. Doppler then thought to himself while putting a contemplative look in his eyes _"What if Sigma is not the origin of the virus, but rather someone who was made to become the spreader?"_

"Dr. Doppler?" X wondered why Doppler had paused mid-sentence, and Doppler widened his eyes and remarked "Oh never mind the contemplative mind I have X. The only way we'll know for sure if the Mavericks stop being a thing is by ridding the world of Sigma's viral form. The battle body was being prepared in the basement X, so take the door to the left and make your way down there via the elevator as soon as you can. More than likely Sigma will be there waiting for you, but like I said before I have faith that you will destroy him, regardless of the power of his new body."

"Then I'll head down there and deal with him right away. Please be careful Doppler, everyone's going to be your enemy out there if you go too far." X remarked before he made a sprint for the door Doppler wanted him to head for. As X left the room, Doppler let out a quiet sigh and folded his arms behind his back, remarking afterwards to himself "…It's time to atone for my mistakes, my old friend…I will see you again soon enough."

X went down the elevator Doppler wanted him to use, ending up deep within the basement of his laboratory and emerging in an area filled with gigantic testing cylinders. One of the cylinders were broken through, with green liquid spread across the floor, and it was clear that this event happened recently. X was thankful that the other cylinders were empty of any Mechaniloids or Sigma bodies, and he quickly sprinted his way through the hallway while dealing with the few Mechaniloid guards that Doppler…Or rather the Sigma-possessed Doppler…Had likely set up to deal with intruders.

At the end of this short road, X looked up and saw a positively gigantic shaft he had to climb in order to reach a platform at the top. He used his Air Dash boots in combination with repeated wall jumps off a single wall until he made it to said platform. There was still more to the shaft when he made it to this point, but noticeably the platform was large enough to fight someone on…And X had every right to suspect that he had ran right into the area that Sigma was at. X gripped the handle of the Z-Saber as it was still attached to his back and exclaimed loud enough for his voice to echo off the walls "Sigma! I know you're here…Come out!"

" _Hehehehe…"_ The familiar laughter of X's dreaded foe echoed in the shaft for a few seconds until the air distorted before X, with Sigma teleporting into the room a mere moment later. His face was practically the same as before, only with his scars having turned bright orange and a strange diamond shaped third eye now on his forehead. His armor was much more complex than his last incarnation of Neo Sigma, with him replacing the cape on his back with six different sized appendages that looked very much like gigantic metallic spider legs. His shoulders were broad and green, his chest having two yellow rectangular plates that looked like eyes from a distance, a spiked belt and spiked red gauntlets, and his boots were much thicker than before with plated kneecaps and hydraulic suspenders near his ankles. But even with all these changes, Sigma gives X the same coy grin he always has, telling him in a very relaxed tone "So you finally figured it out X. Have you enjoyed this little game of ours?"

"Game? How dare you call this a game Sigma! You turned Doppler against the world, made him commit crimes to fulfill YOUR goals, and worst of all you've been responsible for the Mavericks this whole time!" X exclaimed with the utmost fury in his voice, but Sigma merely widened his eyes and began laughing at X's words, telling him bluntly afterwards "So the doctor figured it all out after all? …Well, perhaps that's not entirely true. Yes, I am currently the one responsible for spreading the Maverick virus around, but it didn't all begin with me. No…The answer to that little riddle is much closer than you realize, X. In fact, you could say part of the answer is in your hand at this very moment."

"Enough of your deception Sigma! I won't let you trick me like you did before!" X exclaimed without even taking a glance at the Z-Saber in his hand as he pulls it out from behind his back and activates it, with Sigma just grinning like a madman as he told X "Ah yes…You know, I wasn't lying back then when I said a doctor was my partner. I just didn't expect you to believe it was that fool Doppler I was referring to, but in the end it led to some very humorous paranoia on yours and Zero's ends. So I thank you at the very least for keeping me entertained while I played my façade out to the very end."

"Grrr…!" X growled at the top of his lungs at Sigma's callousness, but the Maverick had no intention of backing down as he quickly went on to say "And in the end, the only person who even suspected the truth was Dr. Cain. But his tiresome presence shall never be felt again in this world…Good riddance."

At this point X was just seconds away from attacking Sigma, restraining himself only because he doesn't know what powers he had at his disposal now. Instead he exclaimed "How DARE you! Dr. Cain was your creator, he cared about you and all other Reploids equally! And you made Doppler, one of his best friends, kill him! What is wrong with you?!" "There's nothing wrong with me X. I have long since awakened to the truth of this world, and in this world I want to create there is no room for idealistic fools like you or Dr. Cain…Or any humans for that matter."

Sigma then spread his arms out and clenched his fists, remarking to X as he stood there ready to fight "You've only delayed me X…I can rebuild the conduits the Hunters have destroyed and spread the Maverick virus across the world, and when I do…Everything will be mine, just as it should be. But first, I must rid this world of you once and for all…" X gripped the Z-Saber tightly and pointed it at Sigma, exclaiming with his body boiling in anger "Bring it Sigma. I won't lose to the likes of you!"

 _Next Time: What it means to win…_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: The Last Stand of Kaiser Sigma**

Sigma starts the battle off by swinging his left hand out and quickly creating his own buster with it, using it to fire off quick shots of purely compressed flames straight at X. The shots moved rather fast, leaving X with little time to recognize the presence of the attack before he ran around the platform to avoid them. He switched to Blizzard Buffalo's weapon and charged up the energy for a large Frost Shield in front of him, and once he spawns it the shield is able to block a couple more of the flames.

X then kicks the shield at Sigma with great force, making it slide along the ground in the span of a second before Sigma swung his buster downward in an arc to pierce the ice and raise it above his head, charging up flames in the arm cannon to shatter the ice and turn the remains to steam in an instant. X fired a couple of smaller Frost Shields at Sigma's chest, both of them impacting and blowing up but not even making Sigma flinch slightly. Sigma grins at X and switches his buster out for a smooth out shield projected out from the back of his hand.

Sigma flings the flashing shield at X like a discus, and it moved so quickly it could've decapitated him if he hadn't ducked back in time. The edge of the shield just shaves off the metal of his chin instead, and Sigma then quickly calls the shield back with a magnetic force and the help of a curve through the air. X quickly charged up energy and tried to intercept the shield with a normal charged shot, but Sigma responded by showing that the spider-like legs on his back weren't for show and firing off a laser from each of them simultaneously to pierce the charged shot and disrupt the energy.

Sigma then catches the shield back in his hand and charges at X thanks to rocket boosters on the back of his legs, and he swings the shield at X's face like a battering club, punching him hard enough to send him flying straight into the wall behind him. X notices the fact that his protective shield didn't activate when Sigma struck him, and wondered if getting hit by Doppler's electricity enough times was responsible for glitching out his armor's body parts.

X pulled himself from the wall before Sigma could decapitate him with a thrust of his shield while it was still attached to his hand. X responded to this by ducking underneath Sigma's arm and raising his right fist up to punch Sigma hard in the chest, which dented the metal slightly. X then charged up his buster and fired into the dent to push Sigma out of the way and force the shield out of his grip as he's pushed back along the ground.

Sigma, with smoke sizzling out of the dent in his chest, lifted his head up slightly and remarked "Your attacks don't pack nearly as much of a punch as they usually do, X…Of course, you're simply worn out from running rampant around that doctor's town, aren't you?" X stood upright and tried to hide the panting of his breath from Sigma, but it was a difficult task to accomplish in his current state. Sigma grinned at that and said "Even with your body healed up between Mavericks, the damage builds up over time. A robot has limits, even you."

Sigma then widened his eyes a little and remarked "But then again, there is that crystal of yours on your forehead…The one that allows you to surpass the limitations of your body and achieve your so-called 'unlimited potential'. Why don't you try and use it against me now, X?" Sigma was clearly trying to goad X into doing things his way, but even if X knew better than to listen to him the problem was that X had no idea how to activate the crystal on his forehead all on his own. X grimaced in response to Sigma's words, and Sigma chuckled a little and remarked "That's true…You don't even know what causes the crystal to activate."

"I don't need that to defeat you Sigma!" X proclaimed with all of his energy before he switched to Volt Catfish's colors and charged up energy, throwing a series of large electric balls at Sigma's way before he raised his right arm up and called the fallen shield back to his hand to protect himself with swift motions of his arm. "Last I checked, you did need it before to defeat me…A fluke that won't happen again, X. I know of your 'Giga Crush' technique now, and this body of mine is strong enough to endure the temperatures radiating from the explosion. And I have no intention of revealing my viral form to you, so you cannot disrupt it with the microwaves emitted from the blast."

Once Sigma was done blocking all the electric attacks, he charged the shield with electricity of his own and punched it against the ground, sending a wave of electricity straight across the ground at X. X summoned a shield thanks to the Triad Thunder, but Sigma's attack split the shield apart down the center and caused some of the electricity to lash against the front of X's body. Static erupts across X's body and paralyzes him for a moment, during which Sigma makes a point to stand upright and brandish a pointer finger at X while remarking "Face it X, you cannot win this time around."

X recovers from the paralysis and grips his arm cannon tightly without showing signs of being worn down, and after switching to Tunnel Rhino's colors he fires a series of Tornado Fangs right at Sigma's shield. Sigma naturally raised his arm up to block the attacks, even as they drilled a bit into the surface of the shield and sent sparks flying across the air. Once the Tornado Fangs were out of the way, X ran at Sigma and pulled out the Z-Saber, swinging at the weakened shield with a couple quick motions of the sword diagonally, and with it weakened X's attack is able to cut it down.

But Sigma had an attack ready for X behind the shield, as his own buster was cocked to fire out a couple flame bursts straight at X. The fire strikes X's left shoulder and part of his chest, burning through parts of the metal slightly as X leaps back before Sigma could attack him further, the flames Sigma fired from his buster afterwards singing the ground. X then switched to Neon Tiger's colors and charged up energy, firing off a sphere with a swing of his hand that travels up slightly and sends a series of light sparkle bombs down upon Sigma.

Sigma takes the brunt of the attacks while barely flinching, followed by him summoning another shield in his hand to protect himself while X switches to Crush Crawfish's weapon and begins charging up energy, throwing a gigantic Spinning Blade at Sigma to slice through his shield when he gets a chance. X was not going to let up on his attacks while he could, and immediately after taking care of the shield X charged forward and attacked Sigma with the Z-Saber a few times as quickly as he could, putting some decent sized cuts into Sigma's body until the Maverick swung his spider-legs out from behind and fired some lasers upon X.

A couple of the lasers pierced right through X's armor even as he leaped back, and Sigma followed up by commenting "You seem to have a good grip on Zero's new sword. But of course, that crystal of yours seems to allow to master any technique you've copied from others. Just imagine X…If that crystal of yours was used as a basis for other Reploids in the future." "You really think more Reploids are going to be made after Dr. Cain's death?" X pointed out bluntly.

"Of course they will be. Cain was the originator of the Reploids, but he was never the only one capable of creating them. I made a couple of my own, if you remember correctly X. Others are going to try and create Reploids to serve their own ends, thinking that they will be able to succeed where Cain failed…But all they will do is build up my army in the end." Sigma remarked in a humored tone of voice regarding humanity's arrogance, but X bluntly exclaimed "You think that they'll allow that to happen knowing that you are a virus?!"

"And who will stop them? You? The government? Hahaha…If there's one thing humans can be relied on, it's their primal desire to satisfy their curiosity. That is the inevitable future X…Where humans build Reploids based upon the copying capabilities of that crystal on your forehead, and when that times comes I will be able to control an army of Reploids with unlimited potential. Hence why it does not bother me at all that I cannot seemingly infect you with the Maverick virus."

"It doesn't matter what you want, it doesn't matter what you think will happen…I am not going to let a single trace of you escape this place, Sigma! You won't create anymore Mavericks, you won't manipulate anyone else to serve your own ends, and no one else will die by your hands ever again! This I swear, SIGMA!" X exclaimed with all of his energy while charging up energy in both of his arm cannons, firing two charged shots at Sigma that strike his chest and push the Maverick back against the wall. Sigma grins happily as some holes were now punctured into his chest armor, and while raising his head up high Sigma bursts into laughter before exclaiming "Excellent! You always make these fights interesting X! But enough fooling around…"

Sigma stretches his arms out and starts releasing a lot of power from his body, his form splitting apart at the seams as X held his ground against the tremors Sigma created on the platform they were on. "Witness the power of my ultimate form! The perfect battle body created by Doppler's intelligence and my prior experiences against you!" Sigma's strength was so immense that he began to short-circuit the lights in the area, which blanketed the area in darkness in a matter of seconds.

After the darkness came, the tremors died down into quietness, and X was left to stand in place wondering what became of Sigma. The area had not changed at all, the platform was still stable, but X heard a painful creaking of metal coming from very close by. A flash of light emerges from a pair of draconic eyes within the darkness, and Sigma's voice emerged from this darkness as well to remark in a bellowing, fearsome tone _"X…You are not the only one with unlimited potential. A virus has the capability to learn and evolve as much as any Reploid, without the restraint of death to stop them!"_

The lights suddenly flared back on in the room, leaving X with a wide-eyed expression as he comes face-to-face with Sigma's new body, a towering behemoth of a machine with a clear dinosaur motif. The upper body had very broad shoulders with arm cannons similar to X's busters underneath the very edges of the shoulders and jet boosters on the back. Sigma's head is protected by a thick collar of armor, and the chest has a clear and ferocious dinosaur face sticking out from it. The legs were powered by huge hydraulic pumps and roaring engines, and there didn't seem to be a single part of his lower body that was unprotected by heavy metal.

Sigma opened the mouth of his chest face and let out a fearsome roar that shook the very room, with Sigma himself proclaiming through said roar _"So try your hardest to kill me X…Time and time again you can try all you want, but I will continue to live! YOU WILL NEVER BE RID OF ME UNTIL THE DAY_ _ **YOU**_ _DIE, X!"_ Though the presence of Sigma's titanic form made X quiver a little, he nevertheless stood his ground and exclaimed while charging both of his arm cannons up "I won't give up! If you keep coming back time and time again, then I will just keep destroying you before you can cause anymore harm!"

He made sure not to reveal Doppler's intentions as he boldly denied Sigma's claims of survival, and then he raised both of his arm cannons and fired them straight at Sigma's chest. The explosions that went off after the charged shots impacted with the armor clouded the upper part of Sigma's body in smoke, but Sigma moved that smoke aside by firing off a series of small missiles from his shoulders straight down at X. X has to leap back and stick to the wall before the missiles struck him.

He then noticed his charged shots didn't do anything to harm Sigma's body, but X wasn't about to give up with just that. He quickly leaped off the wall and drew the Z-Saber to try and attack the right shoulder of Sigma, only for the sword to bounce right off and X being forced to recoil backwards to the ground. He slid back a little once he landed on the ground, with Sigma rising up off the ground thanks to some rockets on his feet, and he moves forward in a ready attempt to crush X under his feet.

X slides underneath Sigma's body before he can land on the ground, but the thundering landing disrupts X's balance before he could stand upright. During this time, Sigma fires off more missiles from the back of his shoulders along with some bombs, making certain that X would have a difficult time avoiding them all as he scrambled to get onto his feet. X fired at the missiles by switching to Crush Crawfish's colors and throwing out small Spinning Blades from his hands, but the bombs sneak by the explosions left behind by the missiles and slam into X's body to throw him back against the wall with the ensuing explosions.

X let out a grunt of pain as his shoulders crack from the impact to his back, but he lands on the ground and quickly grasps his arm cannon before aiming it at the back of Sigma's body. It seems as though Sigma could not turn around easily in this confined space, so X had enough time to attack by firing Tornado Fangs at the backside of Sigma's body. More missiles were fired off from Sigma's shoulders as X fired a few attacks his way, and the missiles intercepted and destroyed the Tornado Fangs by overwhelming them with explosions.

X quickly charged up energy and leaped against the wall behind him, firing off his Air Dash boots and charging straight at Sigma's back with the drill on his arm firing at full power. He rammed into Sigma's back and violently drilled at it, but it only took a few seconds for the drill to start breaking down from the tip to the very end. The sheer strength of Sigma's defenses was enough to overpower even that drill, which made X worry a bit once the drill shattered entirely and X was forced to swing his boots forward and propel himself backwards to the wall before Sigma could hit him with the retaliating strike from his missiles.

Once X was on the wall, he quickly switched to Toxic Seahorse's colors while charging energy, and he fired off a large Acid Burst at Sigma's back. But even as that struck the metal, it didn't manage to burn away at it and it quickly dropped to the ground and burned a hole through that instead. Sigma then turned around by lifting himself off the ground with his rockets, and he quickly used the busters under his shoulders to fire a stream of spread shots right at X. The shots buffeted the sky in multiple locations, giving X no choice but to take the attacks head on despite them putting miniature dents into his armor.

X lands on the ground and switches to Gravity Beetle's colors, roaring as loud as he could as he charged up energy and swung his right hand into the air, bringing down the full force of power from the Gravity Well upon Sigma's body. Sigma resisted the power of gravity by firing his boosters at full power against the force applied on him, spreading waves of smoke and flame across the ground that lashed against the front of X's boots and melted through them enough to disrupt X's concentration and make him drop the focus on the Gravity Well.

Sigma then landed on the ground and laughed at X's futile efforts before firing upon him with a large bomb from the mouth on his chest that exploded after floating through the air for a few seconds, sending a barrage of shrapnel forward that ripped through multiple segments of X's body, a couple of them being large enough to dig into X's limbs and drag him back to the wall, pinning him there as X widened his mouth and let out a yell of absolute pain.

Sigma then prepared to send some missiles after X, giving X only seconds to reach for the shrapnel lodged into his right shoulder and pull it out regardless of how much it hurt, and he pulled himself free from the wall on his own even as some shrapnel existed on his legs. X then rolled forward and dodged the missiles before they struck him, but it was clear that the damage was starting to take it's toll on his body. Sigma fired some more missiles down at X, and X reached for the Z-Saber and swung it out as fast as he possibly could to cut them apart before they could hit.

But the grip on the sword loosens slightly thanks to the damage in his shoulder being great enough to affect the rest of his arm. X leaped back as Sigma fired upon him with a couple large lasers from the busters under his shoulders, but at the same Sigma used his fists to bullet X with a gatling barrage, putting even further damage onto the armor he wore. X tried to retaliate by charging up energy in his arm cannon for a fully powered shot, but then Sigma fires into the arm cannon with one of his lasers and causes a recoil of energy that makes an explosion go off within X's arm cannon.

The lip of the barrel became bent out of shape, with small bulges placed around it. X couldn't turn his arm cannon back to normal with the damage he has taken, and his whole body in general began to look like a complete and utter wreck. Bits and pieces of his armor had been chunked off by Sigma's attacks, and X could barely keep his focus on his surroundings as his visor glitches out and caused nothing but a "WARNING!" flash to appear when he looked at Sigma. X grit his teeth and stated "I-I won't…give up…!" He used whatever energy he could in his tone of voice, but Sigma could only laugh merrily at that level of defiance.

" _Don't make me laugh X! There's nothing more you can do to stop me! Your unlimited potential has failed you, and I reign supreme over you and eventually all Reploids and humans in this world! You should have known better than to defy me!"_ X grit his teeth and looked Sigma straight in the eyes, right into the face of madness itself, and with his body barely standing he focused all of his energy into his broken arm cannon and said "I…I have to defy you Sigma…"

X remembers what's at stake if he loses, what Reploids and humans have died to make it this far, and who could possibly fall as well if he failed to defeat and contain Sigma and the Maverick virus here and now. Every Hunter fighting out there, from Alia to Zero, etched their images into X's mind, with Dr. Light's proud smile being the last thing X sees before his eyes widened with an energy he never had as he said "Because if I don't…"

The crystal on his forehead glows brightly, and all of a sudden his armor begins to quickly repair itself from top to bottom, the arm cannon burning with immense energy as a bright glow surrounds X's body and the Third Armor turns entirely golden, becoming the much more powerful Hyper Armor. X then exclaimed with all of his rage as he aimed the arm cannon right at Sigma's chest "WHO WILL?!" He then unleashed all of the energy he had built up into one gigantic charged shot, the sheer force of it's power shaking the very air itself.

The energy of X's charged shot was bigger than his entire body and burned with a golden radiance, striking the very heart of Sigma's gargantuan form as the Maverick widened his eyes in disbelief. A massive explosions goes off, one with enough power to shroud the entire area in smoke, and when it had settled X was more than glad to see that he torn a massive hole right into Sigma's armor, the face on the chest now gone and the vulnerable but powerful core behind it revealed in full.

Sigma did not waste time retaliating against X, as he took the energy within the core of his body and began charging up one final attack. He exclaimed to X _"Hahaha…! I've been waiting for this moment! The moment where I best your so-called unlimited potential with a single blow! DIE, X!"_ He was far too ecstatic to unleash his attack upon X, and as such the very millisecond that the energy was ready he unleashed it all upon X in the form of a massive cone that was so bright that it reduced all in it's path to pure white as the beam itself flashed multiple colors simultaneously.

But X responded to the cascade of energy by creating a golden shield of energy around his body while he reached to his back for the Z-Saber. As Sigma tore through the walls and floor behind him with his beam, X leaped right out of the energy while gripping the Z-Saber in both of his hands, a hot-blooded look on his face as he charged up all of his energy and poured it into the Z-Saber, exclaiming with all of his might "SHINING ZERO SLASH!" He then swung the Z-Saber out at Sigma's head diagonally, burning the air with a bright golden slash from the tip of the blade until he cut right through Sigma's entire body with his attack.

" _No…NOOO! HOW CAN THIS BE?! HOW CAN YOU HAVE THIS MUCH POWER?! NO OUTDATED ROBOT SHOULD BE ABLE TO SURPASS ALL REPLOIDS AND MAVERICKS! GRAAAAAAH!"_ Sigma breaks down angrily as his body is torn apart from the sheer energy X had unleashed upon him, which had managed to rip apart the wall behind Sigma's hulking body so widely that you could see miles of the walls' inner workings. As X landed on the ground and sheathed the Z-Saber with a firm expression on his face, Sigma's body collapsed as it slowly exploded apart.

X knew things weren't over yet, as sure enough Sigma emerged from his fallen battle body in his viral form, which was the wireframe head that X had seen the last time he encountered Sigma. But this time, Sigma's expression in this form looked absolutely livid, and as he fiercely glared at X he exclaimed _"I won't let you get away with this this time around, X! I don't care what I've been told…No robot is perfectly designed! I will make you go Maverick, I SWEAR IT!"_ Sigma then dives right down at X in an attempt to try and get into his body, but X quickly leaps right over him with the help of his Air Dash boots.

But the moment X lands and draws his Z-Saber, the power of his unlimited potential had come to an end all of a sudden, and his armor lost the golden tint. It took X a moment to notice this as Sigma turned himself around, but by the time he did it mattered little as something else was there to distract him from that. A series of explosions started going off underneath the platform X and Sigma had fought on, with warning sirens blaring across the area "WARNING! LABORATORY SET FOR SELF-DESTRUCT! WARNING! EVACUATE THE PREMISES IMMEDIATELY!"

X grit his teeth slightly out of surprise for what Doppler was doing here, but put his faith into his efforts as he gripped the Z-Saber slightly and swung it out to deflect Sigma's head as he tried to go in for another charge. The explosions then began to crawl up the shaft, with a couple of them erupting out of the damage the two had inflicted on the platform during their battle. X knew to get up the shaft quickly and wall jumped off the wall behind him while using the Air Dash boots to get to the other side of the shaft whenever Sigma tried to attack him again.

He had to sometimes use the Z-Saber to repel Sigma as well, halting with progress as he had to push himself back to the wall he leaped off of, but eventually X made it to the top of the shaft and landed on a hallway. A door slammed down behind him to hold off the explosions, with Sigma seemingly being trapped behind it. X took a moment to catch his breath but held onto the Z-Saber tightly, as it only took a few seconds for Sigma to phase right through the door. Sigma roared X's name in a fit that could only be described as pure rage as he charged right at him.

X leaped back to avoid Sigma's charge, but it only took a few leaps for X to feel his back pressing against a wall. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the wall in his way, and Sigma was now just a few feet away from him with a menacing grin on his face. Sigma tried to charge at him one more time, but X once more defiantly swung his Z-Saber out to repel Sigma from reaching him. Sigma only found himself frustrated further by this, and bluntly exclaimed _"That accursed sword! Will you and Zero always defy me like this?! No…No…I won't allow it!"_

"Then perhaps I can offer my assistance, my Master." With a familiar voice calling out to Sigma, X widens his eyes in surprise before he's struck with a blast of electricity strong enough to make him drop to his knees and become paralyzed. Sigma turns to the right and sees Doppler walking into the area with a sly grin on his face as he folded his arms behind his back and glance at X, who looked absolutely devastated to find that Doppler had attacked him. Doppler looks at Sigma and remarks "Come into my body again Master Sigma. Then you can use my body to destroy X for good!"

"D-Doppler…W-Why?!" X bluntly inquired with his face frozen in a furious expression, and Doppler just grinned at him some more and chuckled before saying "I am merely accepting my fate as a Maverick! No point in betraying Sigma when this is a much better life for me!" Sigma just started chuckling at this bit of news before he remarked _"A wise choice then doctor…Very well, let us destroy X together."_

Sigma then moved his way into Doppler's body, slowly merging as the doctor accepts the virus with open arms. X tried to fight against the paralysis to stop this from happening, but Doppler had hit him with a very strong electric blast. Once Doppler and Sigma had merged back together, Doppler turns to look at X and stretches his arms out, and after a few seconds of grinning there is a brief pause before he winks and gives X a sly smirk. X widened his eyes for a moment upon realizing what that action meant, and Doppler proclaimed "Now, it's time to put an end to this…"

Suddenly, with two spikes emerging from his palms that surged with a strange electricity, Doppler proclaimed with his eyes widened furiously "SIGMA!" He then slams both of those spikes into his chest, causing a blue wireframe netting to spread out across his entire body. The netting releases electricity at the seams as Sigma exclaimed in surprise _"W-What are you doing?! You traitor!"_ Doppler grinned brightly and exclaimed as pain ran through every fiber of his mechanical being "Traitor? You arrogant virus…I was never on your side to begin with!"

The paralysis then began to wear off on X, and a bright smile appeared across his face as he saw that Doppler's netting was keeping Sigma trapped within regardless of how hard the virus struggled to push himself free. "You did it Doppler! You've trapped Sigma! Now you just have to destroy him and we can get out of here!" X exclaimed with enthusiasm, but Doppler just looked up at X and began chuckling a bit, much to X's confusion. "Doppler?" He inquired in a quiet tone.

Explosions continued to go off within the laboratory, and from the sounds of things they were getting closer to this location. Doppler lifted his head up slightly and remarked in a solemn tone "X…Thank you for giving me this chance to redeem myself. Take care…" It took a moment, but X realized what Doppler was intending to do here. He widened his eyes and said to Doppler "Doppler…D-Did you set your laboratory to self-destruct?"

Doppler only grinned in response to that at first, and X proclaimed "I thought you said you had a way of removing Sigma from the world!" Doppler then told X bluntly while doing everything he can to hold Sigma off "This IS my way of ridding the world of Sigma! I can only destroy him if I keep him within my body like this, burying him within the explosions of my own town!"

"This is crazy! There has to be another way! You can't throw your life away like this Doppler!" X exclaimed, even though he knew all too well what Doppler was trying to do. As such, the doctor pulled his head back and remarked with his eyelids shut "I knew you would disagree X…Hence why I didn't give you the details of my plan. But it's alright…"

All of a sudden, Zero teleports into the room behind X, bluntly remarking to his friend "X! I'm taking you out of here! Lets go!" X glanced back at Zero and exclaimed "Zero…We can't just let Doppler die like this!" Zero laid a hand on his friend's left shoulder and told him with a concerned expression "We can't stick around here X! The air fleet is going to blow up all of Doppler Town at his request! We need to get to safety on one of the air ships, now!"

Zero quickly lays a hand on his helmet and prepares to contact Alia and Iris to get them out of there, but X glared at Doppler and said "Is this your doing as well, Doppler?" Doppler grinned and says "Hehehe…It's true, X. I cannot take any risks here. Everything must go, so if even the slightest, SLIGHTEST fragment of Sigma's viral form remains, he will have nowhere to go and eventually perish."

"Doppler! Nooo!" X did not want Doppler to surrender his dreams, even if it was for the sake of stopping Sigma, but there was no further point to X's denial of what was happening as Zero had already got Alia to get a lock on the two of them and they were right in the middle of being teleported out of laboratory. Zero remarked "We're getting out of here X! Hold on!" But before the two vanished, Doppler said to them "Do not think of me as a hero for this one action…I refuse to be remembered as such! Hehehehe!"

X opened his mouth ready to say Doppler's name one last time, but he was taken out of sight before that could happen. Doppler then closed his eyelids and whispered "Good…" from his lips in a satisfied tone. Sigma kept trying to push himself out of the netting, exclaiming to Doppler in a fit of pure rage _"NO! LET ME GO! YOU'RE A FOOL DOCTOR! THIS WILL NOT BE THE END OF ME, I REFUSE TO DIE!"_

"A pity that I refuse to agree with your request! This is how our lives end, Sigma! Our bodies…cast into the hellfire of my lost dreams, never to be seen again!" The explosions start bursting through the walls and floors around Doppler's location as he defiantly speaks out against Sigma. The inevitability of death and the realization that he will never see an afterlife due to being a Reploid struck a cord in Doppler's mind, and as the explosions began to burn into his body he grins as wide as he could and said "But is this truly a horrible death? This is my apology to you, Cain…My dear, old friend…May you rest in peace, and the world as well with the end of Sigma's life…"

As the laboratory and by extension the entirety of Doppler Town are covered in explosions as large as mountains, the only thing that could match the noise the explosions created was the scream of agonizing defeat Sigma gave. For three straight minutes, Doppler Town was completely consumed by the explosions, the sky completely engulfed in smoke by the time all was said and done. All that remained of the legacy of Dr. Doppler's legacy was a smoldering wasteland, and the sacrifice he made to put a final end to Sigma's existence…

 _Next Time: Legacies_


	14. Final Chapter

**Final Chapter: Towards a Better Future…**

 _After what seemed like a very long fought battle, the Maverick Hunters had succeeded in putting a stop to Dr. Doppler…Or rather Sigma's plans. Doppler had sacrifice his life, his dreams, and everything that was his existence in order to capture Sigma's viral form in his body and ensure his destruction when Doppler Town was completely wiped from the world. But with Sigma's demise came a greater cost than ever before…Sigma had used Doppler's memories and intelligence to force Dr. Cain to have his final demise, leaving no lasting trace of him in this world for the rest of time…_

 _Or so Sigma thought would happen. Dr. Cain proved to be more stubborn than Sigma or any of the Maverick Hunters could have imagined, and he left in the world his final words, practically begging for humanity to not fall victim to what was going on with the Mavericks and try to not reject Reploids unfairly. Would his words change the fate of humanity and the Reploids? Hmmm, that's a tale only time can tell, but there is a subtle sense that he did make some difference to their relationship in his final moments…_

 _ **Two days after Doppler Town was destroyed…**_

At the very front of the Maverick Hunter HQ, a stone and metal statue of Dr. Cain has been erected around a circle of various flowers, with every single Maverick Hunter and member of Repliforce gathered close to this statue to offer up their salutes to the brave man who allowed them to exist, the man who worked tirelessly for peace even after his physical body died…A man, who above all else, was an example to them all on how to truly be brave in the line of duty.

A peaceful piano solo was played at this funeral, one filled with tones of remembrance of melancholy, and said solo lasted for ten minutes, with maybe only the sounds of birds chirping as they flew on by interrupting this beautiful song. When the song was at an end, there was a moment of silence amongst the Reploids with all of them giving Dr. Cain one last salute before the funeral ceremony came to an end.

X and Zero, who were at the ceremony at the time, then parted away from the rest of the crowd and stood in front of the statue, looking up at the face of Cain's before X remarked "It's hard to believe he's gone…" Zero quietly murmured "It really does feel bizarre, now that you mention it X…One day he was here, helping us establish our places in the Maverick Hunters, and the next he's giving his life to help us stop a grave threat to the world."

X glanced at Zero and told him "There really is no possibility that a part of him survived, is there?" He already knew the answer to the question, but sought Zero's answer out so he could remove all doubts from his mind. Zero closed his eyelids and solemnly remarked "…There was a great sense of finality in his last words. Everything points to him being dead for good."

Turning his head back to the statue and hanging it low a little, X remarked "Yeah, you're right…Say Zero, do you remember when Dr. Cain recruited you to the Maverick Hunters?" Zero glanced at X and said in a surprised tone of voice towards himself in particular "Oh yeah, I don't think I ever told you that, did I?"

Zero folded his arms together and looked up at Dr. Cain's statue, remarking with a little bit of a struggle due to the vagueness of his memories "I recall being found by Dr. Cain somewhere in the mountains outside of Abel City…Actually, I think both him and Sigma were there to greet me. Dr. Cain was impressed with my specs, and offered me a chance to help him deal with the Maverick threat. So just like that, I ended up joining the Maverick Hunters."

X widened his eyes a little and remarked "Sigma was there?" "Yeah, but I'm pretty certain he wasn't a Maverick at the time. I recall him being a lot more professional in demeanor, after all. You know, come to think about it, I joined the Maverick Hunters before you did X." Zero pointed out with a friendly gesture towards his friend.

X widened his eyes and chuckled a little at that comment, and he told Zero after he was done laughing "Hehehe, that's right. I wasn't taken out of my capsule until a few years after Dr. Cain had worked on creating the Reploids." Zero turned to look at X and pulled his head back and started laughing himself, which caught X by surprise until Zero held his head down a little and said "I'm just remembering the first training exercise you were a part of. You had difficulty understanding how your charge shot worked, and you ended up nearly hitting me with it. You were apologizing so much after that…"

"And you just brushed it off like it was nothing, and then you helped me learn how to control it since you had a buster of your own. I figured out the technique minutes after that, and that was the moment you and I became friends, Zero." X remarked with a fond grin on his face, followed by Zero folding his arms together and saying "Yep. I don't think either of us will forget that moment, X."

The two then chuckle quietly for a little bit before letting out a melancholy sigh and looking up at Cain's statue one last time, with Zero remarking as he did so "…Even with everything we deal with as Hunters, we have had some nice, peaceful moments X. Maybe one day Dr. Cain's perfect world will come to a reality, and humans and Reploids can co-exist without a single Maverick around to disturb the peace." "At the very least, without Sigma around we can make better strides to stopping the Maverick threat." X remarked.

"Doppler left us that much, at the very least. But first we need to figure out how to identify those that were infected with the Maverick virus." Zero remarked before looking at X. X nodded his head and remarked "Yep…All we can do is wait until they figure out a method…" X then flinched for a moment and reached for his back, pulling off the handle of the Z-Saber from his back and extending it out towards Zero.

"This is probably the best time for me to give this back to you, Zero." X remarked happily, and Zero said in a surprised tone "You sure? I can always get the science department to make me another one, they kept the blueprints that Cain and Doppler had used to remake me." X shook his head in response and insisted "It fits you more than it does me. It was helpful in stopping Sigma, and I thank you for letting me borrow it, but I'm fine with just using my trusty buster."

Zero chuckled a little after a momentary pause, and he reached out to grab the Z-Saber from X's palm while remarking "Yeah, that's just a part of your identity. It's part of what I like about you X…No matter what happens, you'll never truly stop being yourself." As Zero places the Z-Saber onto his back, X looks at him and remarks "And neither will you, Zero."

But as X said that, he was suddenly reminded of what Sigma had remarked, about how the Z-Saber was connected to the person who allowed the Maverick virus to exist in the first place. X looked at Zero with a concerned expression for a few seconds before shaking those suspicions off, which made Zero look at him funny and remark "Something up X?" X smiled and replied with "Not at all…I was just about to make the mistake of listening to what Sigma had said to me."

"Yeah, probably not a good idea to do that again. Anything he says is just an attempt to mess with you…That's mostly how we got into a lot of trouble with this whole Doppler Town mission, by acting on paranoia instead of searching for evidence first." Zero remarked in response to that, and X nodded his head in agreement. That was all that needed to be said on the subject, and the two dropped the matter there. "So what are you going to do now, X?" Zero inquired.

"I think Signas wanted to see me about something important, so I'll go that…Otherwise, I'm just going to relax today unless an emergency comes up." X remarked, and Zero said "Sounds like a good plan there. I'm going to go check up on Blast Hornet…The doctors are trying their best to repair him after what happened, so I want to see their progress."

"Then it looks like we're going to part for a bit, huh Zero?" X remarked, and Zero swung his right hand out for a handshake and remarked "Not like we'll be that far from each other X. We're both Maverick Hunters, and this HQ is our home." The two friends share a handshake right after that, and the two of them then proceed to go their separate ways temporarily to take care of their own business.

Meanwhile, at the very top of the HQ, Signas and Colonel can be seen standing before the holographic projector, where the remaining government figures are speaking to them both through their monitors. By this point, Repliforce has completely restored the command center to it's former glory, meaning that everything is operating at perfect capacity. _"…I see, so this whole time it was a virus causing most of the Mavericks to exist. And you're saying Sigma was that very virus?"_ One of the government figures inquired, and Signas nodded his head and remarked "The report X gave regarding events matches up with the evidence we found in Doppler's form lab here."

" _Sigh…So we were really blind regarding the true threat. Doppler was never the villain, it has always been Sigma and his Maverick virus from the very beginning. Needless to say though, without Sigma around thanks to Doppler's sacrifice, we can make some real progress towards stopping the Maverick threat for good."_ After another of the government figures were done, Colonel inquired with a respectful tone "We've already sealed the parts of the Sigma's first body that contained the Maverick virus and sent them off to our research department. If we're lucky, we should be able to develop a method of detecting the virus in others soon enough."

" _That's good to hear, Colonel. We will try to keep the existence of the Maverick virus under wraps for now to avoid inciting panic after everything Dr. Cain did to help mend relationships between humans and Reploids. Oh, and Officer Signas? We would like to offer an apology to you and the rest of the Maverick Hunters for not believing your stories regarding the Doppler situation."_ One of the government figures remarked, and Signas said in turn "There's no need to apologize. We had no proof of events for quite some time…Truth be told, I wouldn't have been offended if you had labeled us as Mavericks."

" _Hehehe…Humble as always Signas. Alright, let us know the moment you find out anything more regarding the Maverick virus."_ With that last remark, the government figures signed out, leaving Signas and Colonel to their own devices for the time being. Signas immediately turned to Colonel and said to him with a smile on his face "I must thank you again for everything you did to help us out, Colonel. This victory would not have been possible if it wasn't for you and the rest of Repliforce keeping our HQ from collapsing upon itself."

"I'm more than happy to offer assistance to my fellow Reploid-in-arms. We both serve the same function at the end of the day, so it seems like such a waste to keep our groups separated." Colonel replied with, with Signas rubbing his chin and remarking "Then why not combine our organizations together? Surely General and our Commander would have no problem with such an idea."

Colonel smiled a little and said "Perhaps I will bring up the idea to General when I return to HQ. For now though, I think we will still offer our help more often when we can. We can't end the Maverick threat unless we work together, after all. My sister Iris can stay here as a navigator, since she seems to have enjoyed her time assisting Zero. I will also keep a few of our other members here so you can deal with the finishing touches on your HQ."

"Then that's all we have to say as far as business goes, isn't it?" Signas remarked, and Colonel nodded his head in agreement. Signas then tip his metallic hat slightly and said with a grin on his face "Then once I have finished my affairs with X, you and I should go get a drink. I know Reploids cannot taste drinks like humans can, but it's the principal of the gesture that matters in the end."

"I would enjoy that. I shall meet you at the entrance of the HQ then." Colonel remarked, and with him calmly folding his arms behind his back he made his way towards the exit of the room right as X began to walk through it. "Oh, Colonel!" X said, giving him a quick salute as he stood beside him. Colonel chuckled at the gesture and said "Ease up X, I'm not your superior officer. Take care of yourself, and I shall perhaps see you around."

Colonel then walked out the doors, and X followed him with his gaze for a little bit before turning to face and walk over to Signas. "You needed me for something, Officer Signas?" X inquired, and Signas quickly reached for the keyboard behind him to pick up a very small device between his fingers while remarking "Your timing couldn't have been better X. There's something I need to give to you…It's from Alia."

X looked surprised for a moment as Signas handed the device over to him, and he said as such "Alia? Why didn't she give this to me in person?" Signas closed his eyelids and let out a sigh, remarking in a quiet tone to X "She said everything would be explained on that device to you…I will wait around here until you done, as she already told me everything she needed to before handing over that device."

X placed the device on the right part of his helmet at Signas' insistence, and after a few seconds of static feedback X begins to hear a clear message being spoken to him from Alia herself. _"If you've gotten this message from Signas, then I've likely already left the Maverick Hunter HQ, X. I know you're probably wondering why, you're probably really concerned about me and want to do whatever you can to try and find me so you can ask me directly…But please, don't follow me. I've left no trace of where I am going, I haven't told anyone, and there's no hints you'll find anywhere."_

" _But I don't want to leave you hanging entirely, X. I was only your navigator for about six months, but it was a good time, it really was…You trusted me, and I was able to in time trust you. That's why it's important that I do what I am doing now. The matter of Bit and Byte's return dredged up some old memories of mine…A lot of them nothing I wished to experience again. But it reminded me that there's some things you just can't let go of, so until I can deal with some of these issues on my own, I have to retire from being one of the Maverick Hunters…"_

" _Well…It's more that I have to temporarily retire. I'll return here someday, I can promise you that, and when I do I'll be able to be more focused than I ever was before. I won't let something like Bit or Byte's return throw me off ever again. So please X, try not to push yourself too hard, and don't give my replacement navigator a hard time whenever you meet them. Oh, and give me regards to Zero as well…I would have created a device for him to listen to that runs on his specs, but I ran out of time. Farewell for now, Maverick Hunter X…"_

The device comes to an abrupt stop when Alia's goodbye was at an end, and X stared blankly at Signas until the Hunter whispered to him "…I'm sorry I can't tell you anymore than what was on the device, X." X solemnly held his head down and remarked "I wasn't going to try and ask anyways, Officer Signas." He then took the device off of his ear and crunched it so no one else could learn what was said.

Signas put a hand close to his chin and remarked as he looked down at X "I am already looking into finding out another navigator…Alia offered me a few good suggestions, but you're more than welcome to decide who you want as your navigator if you wish to, X…I owe you that much for saving us all." "I'll take you up on that offer later, Officer Signas." X said respectfully, and Signas smiled and nodded his head before choosing to leave the area.

As X was left alone in the command center, he could only think about what the future might hold, and that he would do everything in his power to make sure that peace came to the world. Holding a hand onto his arm cannon as he looked towards the brave Hunters that were standing around him, X whispered to himself "I'll do this for you Dr. Light…You and Dr. Cain both…"

Meanwhile, in another part of the HQ, Zero could be seen walking the hallways towards the medical bay. He had a calm demeanor to him as he opened the door and went to see how the Reploids inside were doing with Blast Hornet's body. But upon entering the room, he finds that a few Reploids are currently in the middle of scrapping Blast Hornet's body, placing it inside of a garbage bag with his name and Hunter code listed on it. Zero immediately widened his eyes and remarked bluntly "Hey! What's going on here?!"

He tried to rush right ahead, but a Reploid with considerably noticeable doctor attachments got in his way with a hand raised and remarked "Zero, sir, I need you to stay right there, please." Zero tried to glance over the Reploid's shoulders and head to no avail and quickly became frustrated as he demanded of the Reploid "You're supposed to be repairing him! Why is he being scrapped?!"

The Reploid calmly told Zero "…You need to hear me out and remain calm, Zero. There's nothing we can do to repair Blast Hornet. His internal core was pulled out and left in Dr. Cain's hands, remember? You never bothered to reclaim it, and we don't know where his last location was…Assuming he even kept the core in the same location after examining it. And without Blast Hornet's blueprints and a scientist on Cain or Doppler's level of intelligence, we cannot create a new core. Our expertise is doing basic repairs for Reploids, not something as big as wide scale reconstruction…"

Zero flinched in shock upon having the whole explanation stated to him, and he pulled himself back for a moment and grit his teeth while clenching his fists together as the Reploid doctor explained "…I'm sorry it had to be this way Zero…We really wanted to save Blast Hornet, but there's nothing that could be done. The least we can do is take his body and make sure his parts are used again in the creation of other Reploids…Once the science team makes sure that he isn't carrying traces of the Maverick virus."

There was a brief pause where Zero looked at the bag Blast Hornet's parts were being carried in and felt a twinge of anger at himself for not doing something to save him sooner, but he tried to calm down just enough to look at the Reploid doctor and say to him "…I'm sorry for snapping like that. Y-You did try your best, I'm sure of that…" Zero then turned around and went back for the door, but not before glancing over his shoulder and remarking "Just make sure he gets a proper burial if his parts can't be reused…"

"Yes sir!" The Reploid doctor exclaimed obediently before he went back to his line of work, and Zero exited right out the sliding door and left that saddening scene behind him. Zero closed his eyelids and took a couple steps forward, trying to calm himself down with a few quiet breathes before the frustration of not saving his dear comrade got to him, at which point Zero punched the metallic wall in front of him with enough force to shake the hallway, causing some dust to shake out from the cracks in the ceiling above.

In his moment of rage, Zero did not realize that Iris was in the same hallway as him, not at least until he lifted his slumped head up and glanced to the left, where he saw her looking at him with a saddened and somewhat shocked look on her face. Zero lifted himself up and remarked in a tone regretting the anger he displayed in front of her "Iris…H-How long have you been there for?" Iris slowly walked up to Zero and remarked in a gentle but timid tone of voice "I-I was here for a few seconds…Are you ok, Zero?"

Zero folded his arms together and couldn't bring himself to lie as he quickly told Iris "No…I'd be deceiving you if I said 'yes'. I just finished checking up on Blast Hornet…And they said that they can't do anything to repair him. Once he's examined for traces of the Maverick virus, they are going to use his body for parts…" Iris widened her eyes and let out a shocked gasp, stating to Zero a moment later "I-I'm sorry to hear that…He was your close comrade, it's not right that he wasn't able to be saved."

Zero grit his teeth slightly and glanced to the side before remarking "I guess not everyone can be as lucky as I was to come back to life after having their body blown apart like that…" Zero scowled for a moment before lifting a hand up and clenching it tightly into a fist, saying to Iris after a momentary pause "I wonder…If Blast Hornet could have been saved if I had called him out of Doppler Town sooner."

"You would have had to convince him not to go from the very start, isn't that right? It sounds like the chip was installed into his body not long after he got into Doppler Town…" Iris pointed out, as much as she hated to be realistic about the whole thing, leading to Zero looking at her and remarking "I wouldn't have been able to convince him to not go there, that's the problem…He wanted to stop Doppler…Or I guess in the end Sigma, from causing trouble for us all…If Sigma had never existed, if he had been permanently stopped sooner…"

"Zero!" Iris quickly exclaimed his name to get him to stop talking like he was, and after Zero paused and looked at Iris in surprise before she bluntly told him while clenching her fists near her chest "You can't blame yourself for this! What Sigma did is not your fault…I can't say enough how terrible it was that good Reploids like Blast Hornet had to die, but do you think he'd want you to keep lingering on his death? You and X avenged him with Sigma's demise, if he had one last chance to see you, he'd be happy to know that his work wasn't in vain."

Zero paused for a few more seconds and stared at Iris with a dumbfounded look on his face, as though it took him a moment to realize just what she was saying. Once he did understand though, he put on a more relaxed expression and gave a half decent smile towards Iris before saying to her "Iris…I think I really did need to hear that from you…And you're right. Sigma's gone, any of his victims have now been avenged, and now we have an idea on how to deal with whatever Mavericks remain in this world."

Iris' expression brightened up before she proclaimed "Exactly! Someday soon, Reploids and humans can leave together perfectly in harmony with one another…Isn't that exciting to think about, Zero?" The warm and cheerful smile on Iris' face brought Zero to smile as well, and he looked at her and said "That's what we have to work for, Iris. Together…The Maverick Hunters and Repliforce can give humanity a future free of concern towards Mavericks, a world without the chaos of war."

"And I'll be by your side Zero, helping you out every step of the way…And maybe, once this is all over…" Iris had a tinge of red in her metallic cheeks as she spoke and swayed her body back and forth slightly while looking at Zero with more than just admiration on her face, but she quickly shook the emotions off once Zero glanced at her and asked "Huh? What do you mean by that Iris?"

She merely grinned happily and said to Zero "Oh nothing…Just forget about it Zero. That can be for later…" Zero laid a hand on her right shoulder much to her surprise and remarked "I'm glad you'll still be around to help Iris. We'll do this together…We'll finish the Maverick War once and for all." Iris nodded her head in agreement as Zero pulled his hand away from her shoulder. Zero then gestured at her and smiled before walking off in the opposite direction of where she stood.

As Zero went off to deal with his own affairs, Iris watched him and smiled as bright as she could, closing her eyelids as she crossed her hands against her chest and remarked "You're always so concerned about others…You're just like X in that regard, Zero. But it seems like you are more clear about your selflessness than X is…And that's why I consider you to be more of a hero. My hero, Zero…Hehehe…" Iris giggled a bit at her silly, childish wordplay before realizing that she had work to do still. So she went through the hallways to continue her duty, just as everyone else in the HQ was doing at that very moment. After all…The duty of a Maverick Hunter will only end when all Mavericks are destroyed…

 **THE END…**


	15. Epilogue

**Epilogue: Accomplice**

In the ruins of Doppler Town, not a single creature has stirred since it's destruction. Every Reploid, every Maverick, every building…There was not a single trace of anything to be found here. Just the smoldering craters and burning refuges caused by the explosions set off by Doppler and the Maverick Hunters. The smoke that rose up from the wasteland made the lands inhospitable for humans for the time being, however, and as such the Maverick Hunters plan to work on clearing the smoke out as quickly as they can.

…They will have wished they had dealt with this matter just a bit sooner, especially in months to come, as by some insane miracle of the devil itself, impossible as it may sound given the facts presented, there was something crawling slowly across the wastelands, trying it's hardest to escape the fate it had been handed. It was a barely put together metallic hand, one made out of the very, very scarce remnants of Doppler Town. It dug at the dirt in the ground and pulled itself forward inch by inch, but it seemed as though it would never escape this area.

That is to say, until a figure began to approach the hand from within the smoke filled wasteland. The person in question was clearly robotic, as it could survive within the poisonous smoke clouds with ease. It stopped next to the crawling hand, which paused upon sensing the vibration of the being's footsteps. "Hehehe…So that's where you ended up. You continue to impress me with your persistence, Sigma…" The being said in an elderly but rather knowledgeable sounding voice.

The hand then froze in place, allowing the being a chance to lean down and pick the hand up off the ground and lift it up. Within the smoke, the being's face and body could not be seen, but their quiet laughter could clearly be heard. "So long as a part of you survived…I suppose you and I can still continue our partnership in full, can't we?" After the being said that, the hand waved itself up and down slightly to act as a head nod.

"Excellent…I promised you something truly spectacular out of all of this Sigma, and you agreed to go through with it to the very end. I cannot show myself yet…At least not in front of him, so you still have to perform the finishing touches. They suspect that you are dead, that the virus will not spread again…This is perfect. In their moments of utter foolery, we will tear them all apart, destroying whatever teamwork they have proposed and leave nothing in their wake but more chaos."

The being chuckled rather noticeably after that, and as he turned around he said "And once all is said and done…Zero will be ready once more, and at that time he will finally be ready to destroy X…And bring about an end to Thomas Light's legacy once and for all! Hehehehehe….HEHEHEHEHE!" The being then vanished through the smoke, leaving only the foreboding echoes of his laughter behind as he took the tiny bits of Sigma's remains with him…

 _To be continued…_

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Well, another Maverick Hunter X story has come and gone. Personally, between the two I've done I think this one came out better than X2. Probably because switching between X and Zero's perspectives meant I had different personalities to work with, so I didn't get tired too easily. Plus there was a bunch of other stuff I liked doing, like this being the only time I'll get to write Vile, or Doppler's sacrifice, or Cain's death.

Buuuuut...Now that this is over with, I'm saddened to say you won't be seeing Maverick Hunter X4 for a while, perhaps not even until sometime next year. I got two other major stories that need to be written, and then I'll be free to move back to this stuff. Plus I know X4 is pretty big, and I want to do my very best on that one. So until the next time gents, thanks for reading, and have a good day.


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